10 Most Successful South African Traders

These 10 successful African traders have shown that forex trading can be profitable for anyone regardless of their country, age, or gender.

The forex market is very well-known for being the largest financial market in the world. The popularity of forex trading has come across different regions, with London and New York as the most prominent markets accounting for at least 50% of the daily forex turnover. Other countries like Australia, Japan, and Switzerland also have huge, well-established forex markets.

In other words, forex trading has pretty much covered Europe, Asia, America, and Australia. However, it's still relatively rare for people to talk about forex news updates from Africa. Despite being the second-largest and second-most-populous continent in the world, Africa still lags behind when it comes to online forex trading.

The good news is, Africa's forex market has experienced major growth in recent years. Currently, the total number of forex traders in Africa is about 1.3 million, with most of them come from South Africa and Nigeria. Kenya, Botswana, Namibia, and Rwanda markets are also growing steadily. Following the continent's increasing accessibility of fast and affordable internet connection, many young entrepreneurs have begun to learn forex trading and some of them end up making millions.

As such, today we're going to unfold the stories of the most successful and notable young forex traders from South Africa.

1. Sandile Shezi

Sandile Shezi is among the youngest and yet most successful individuals in South Africa. He became a millionaire at a pretty young age, but note that his climb to the top was not easy. He had to take a huge risk by choosing to spend the money he had to trade in the high-risk forex market.

When he was a schoolboy, he would sell muffins and use the earnings to trade forex. He understood the risk that comes with it, but that didn't stop him. Young Sandile, being a risk-taker that he was, used the entire money his friends had given as tuition fees, for trading. But the odds turned out to be in his favor as he eventually landed himself a fortune instead of a trading loss.

Sandile Shezi is now one of the richest traders in South Africa with a net worth of at least $2.3 million. As a part of his remarkable success in forex trading, he established the Global Forex Institute together with his mentor, George Van Der Riet, where they teach young entrepreneurs about forex trading and how to create powerful strategies.

Sandile also owns a non-profit organization called the Sandile Shezi Foundation which aims to transform the minds of African youth as well as to enhance the continent's education, health, and wealth. The organization strives to make changes in the country by giving bursaries and scholarships to students, improving the overall health of marginalized populations, as well as support young traders.

2. George Van Der Riet

George Van Der Riet is a popular forex trader who was able to generate a great amount of success through his studious application of forex trading strategies. George was born and raised in Cape Town and continued his education in Manchester where he studied Finances. While he was in the UK, he worked in several financial companies. The experiences he gained there helped him to become the expert trader that he is right now.

In 2013, he built the Global Forex Institute together with Sandile in order to educate young people in South Africa about forex trading and financial markets. Apart from that, he is also one of the recipients of the African Forex Cup.

3. Ref Wayne

Ref Wayne is another popular and successful forex trader in South Africa. He has been particularly inspirational to young traders for his extravagant lifestyle that he earned from his hard work in forex trading.

Ref Wayne was initially faced with very limited career opportunities growing up. He decided to start trading at the age of 16 and built his career from there. By the age of 19, he impressively made his first million – a rather rare accomplishment for beginner traders. He continued to improve his trade and finally became a multimillionaire in only a few years. He joined the ranks of the top 10 forex traders in South Africa when he was only 22 years old.

Wayne has used his knowledge and interest in business, philosophy, and psychology to publish a book entitled "The Art of Trading Armageddon". He has even become somewhat of a guru in the trading industry, create the first South African cryptocurrency named Pip Coin, and build the African Forex Institute to provide proper financial education to South Africans.

4. Nelisiwe Masango

As a high school student, Nelisiwe Masango wanted to become a neurosurgeon. But slowly, she began to develop a passion for finance and investments. So she started learning about entrepreneurial management and eventually stumbled across forex trading. Having had a natural interest and talent in the financial markets from an early age, Nelisiwe Masango has become a self-taught forex trader who is able to make great trading decisions and become one of the most successful forex traders in the country.

Today, Masango is the director of Bear Run investments while actively promoting women in finance. She manages two business enterprises that she owns. The first one being "Female and Finances", which aims to promote financial awareness and security for women in South Africa. The other one is "Gentle Hands Agency", which aims to help people who are suffering from the lack of job opportunities.

5. Jabulani Ngcobo

Jabulani Ngcobo was born in 1985 and was raised in the South African coastal city of Durban. Now he is one of the richest forex traders in the country with a net worth estimated at $2.4 billion; the majority of which coming from his success in forex trading. Ngcobo launched his Cashflow Pro brand back in 2009, which was later renamed Smart FX Pro, with the mission of empowering individuals to become traders with educational training courses. He's also the author of Cashflow Naked, a biography and a lesson of financial education.

6. Louis Jr Tshakoane

Louis Jr Tshakoane is another famous forex trader based in South Africa who is the founder and president of Undercover Billionaires International, which aims to develop a network base of business professionals to connect and discuss ideas, as well as provide necessary forex training. The foundation often hosts free forex seminars for students and provides each of them with a free forex account.

Apart from that, Tshakoane has written several trading books, including his latest work "Forex Millionaire in 365 Days by God's Grace", which officially crossed R2+ Million in revenue and sales. Even before the book was released, there were already more than 2,000 pre-orders and copies sold online. It has sold well due to the massive loyal African followers that he has gathered over the past five years.

With over 1 million followers on his social media, Tshakoane has also started a Telegram channel with over 5,000 subscribers, where he provides free forex signals to young people who can't afford to pay for costly premium signals on the market. Recently, Tshakoane has branched into cryptocurrency trading.

7. Simz D'Mandla

Simz D'Mandla is a multi-millionaire and one of the most successful forex traders in Africa. He was born in Tembisa and raised in Midrand, Gauteng. He began trading on the JSE as a hobby during his high school years, which eventually grew into a full-time career. He successfully made his first million at the age of 20 years old.

D'Mandla is widely known as the founder and CEO of Trade4Africa and the African Millionaires Program. Through his companies, he tries to reduce the gap in society by providing better education to help young people become successful traders. Apart from being a forex analyst and trader, he's also an active social entrepreneur, a wealth coach, motivational speaker, business strategist, and philanthropist with the vision of uplifting African economies.

8. Paballo Nkwe and Danielle Lester

Paballo Nkwe and Danielle Lester are two inspirational female traders who are both still in their 20s. They own a company together called iSelect Wealth where they mentor individuals, start-ups, and companies about forex trading. They have also created models and platforms by using advanced technologies and financial intelligence accessible to anyone. Other than that, they have also created an incubation program, where they visit women in South African Universities to teach them about forex trading and help them develop financial intelligence.

9. Shaun Benjamin

Shaun Benjamin is a young and successful African forex trader who is highly skilled in understanding the dynamics of the forex market. After graduating from Newcastle High School back in 2012, Shaun was initially accepted to study engineering. Unfortunately, he had to stop due to his financial condition. This particular circumstance then led him to forex trading, where he made his first million Rand at only 21 years old.

He eventually left his job to be a full-time forex trader and once he saved enough money, established the Benjamin Forex Academy when he was 23. He teaches novice traders about forex trading and how to build powerful trading plans in his academy, which is the only non-profit training center in South Africa that focuses on helping others attain financial freedom and reduce unemployment. Other than that, Benjamin is also known as the director of Benjamin Investment Group (Pty) Ltd, a qualified miner, a property investor, and an active entrepreneur.

10. Reabetswe Shongwe

Reabetswe Shongwe is an incredibly inspiring forex trader as she started off as a low-paid retail sales assistant and ended up being one of the wealthiest young female forex traders in Africa. She is a part of the Women in Forex and Entrepreneurship (W.I.F.E), which is a division under the well-known financial organization, Trade4Africa.

Despite being considerably late to the game, forex trading in Africa has proven to experience massive growth over the last few years due to the increasing awareness of forex trading potentials and growing needs for job opportunities in the digitalized world. Based on these success stories, we can see that there is an excellent opportunity for African traders to become rich and successful in forex trading. These people have shown us that through hard work and dedication, anything is possible, especially now that the forex market has become more accessible to anyone regardless of their country, background, gender, or age.

Apart from the good stories, there's also the dark side of successful forex traders that you need to know. In fact, there's a growing number of supposedly full-time traders who fabricate their stories in social media, just to make their followers fall into their marketing schemes. One of their stories can be explored here in "A Story of Popular Fake Trader on Instagram".