Billionaire car kings in South Africa earning R78,630 per day

South Africa’s top used-car dealer, WeBuyCars, paid its founders, Faan and Dirk van der Walt, a total of R28.7 million in the 2025 financial year, which is about R78,630 per day.

This was revealed in the group’s annual report, published earlier this year, which details the payment packages for all of its top executives.

The company’s CEO, Faan van der Walt, received a 3.5% increase compared to his 2024 earnings, taking home R17.3 million in 2025.

His brother, the company’s Executive Director Dirk van der Walt, also received a 3.5% raise to R11.4 million, while CFO Chris Rein earned R11.0 million, and COO John Mills took home R10.6 million.

Their total compensation packages comprise basic salaries, retirement benefits, the expense of share plan awards, and additional incentive bonuses.

For example, the CEO earned a base salary of R9,860,000, retirement benefits totalling R1,074,000, Conditional Share Plan (CSP) awards valued at R2,450,000, and annual incentive bonuses totalling R3,955,000.

Below is a breakdown of each WeBuyCars executive’s payouts during the 2025 financial year:

These payouts came after WeBuyCars expanded its operations, culminating in a 13.1% increase in revenue, up to R26.4 billion.

In the 2025 financial year, it also saw a 15% increase in core headline earnings and higher buying and selling volumes of 180,576 and 179,006 units, which were up 7.7% and 8.4%, respectively.

Monthly sales volumes exceeded 15,000 units in six of the last 12 months, reaching a monthly record of 16,294 units in November 2024.

From a backyard to over 100 branches

Growing up in Bronkhorstspruit, Pretoria, Faan and Dirk van der Walt would work on cars with their father, who had a love for old Citroëns.

Faan developed a love for working on old, run-down cars, while Dirk did not take to the craft the way his brother did.

While still in high school, Faan bought a Yamaha XT500 for R400 and after working on the bike, resold it for R450, sparking something in the young entrepreneur.

He continued to buy, repair, and sell motorbikes, and while he was studying teaching at the University of Pretoria, he bought and sold his first car.

In 1999, Faan and his wife, Tanja, moved to the UK to teach for two years, where they managed to save R300,000, which paid for a house and the founding of WeBuyCars upon their return in 2001.

Dirk’s marketing degree added a business-growth mindset to Faan’s knowledge of cars, and together, the two would buy cars through junk mail, when Dirk realised they needed to reach more sellers by pushing their marketing.

He placed adverts in public spaces like ATMs, cafés and post boxes, and despite the internet being only a few years old, insisted that the business get a website.

Over time, the business grew and moved from their backyard to warehouses and expanded across the country; then, in 2012, they appointed additional buyers to help cope with the increased demand in Gauteng.

In 2014, they hired their first buyer in Cape Town, and after that, they appointed buyers in all the major towns in South Africa.

By 2017, WeBuyCars opened Africa’s biggest car showroom in Midstream, housing 1,100 cars under one roof before rebranding in 2020.

WeBuyCars purchased the TicketPro Dome in Northgate, Johannesburg, from the Sasol Pension Fund for R175 million in 2021 and changed the venue into a car showroom.

In 2024, the company was listed on the JSE and now boasts a market cap of around R18 billion, with over 100 branches and the ultimate goal to expand to 200 across all nine provinces