SA-born Musk makes his mark at No 21 in list of planet's most powerful

The most powerful South African in the world is . . . Elon Musk. The Tesla and SpaceX boss‚ from Pretoria‚ came 21st on Forbes’ annual list of the planet’s most powerful on Thursday‚ and is the sixth most influential chief executive.

The power parade‚ which features 74 people‚ is topped by Russia’s President Vladimir Putin. Next are US president-elect Donald Trump‚ German chancellor Angela Merkel‚ Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Pope Francis.

Twenty-eight people on the list are CEOs‚ and the top 10 — all based in the US — run firms with a combined market capitalisation of $3-trillion.

Musk‚ with a net worth of R11.5-billion‚ makes electric cars and solar products through Tesla and spacecraft with SpaceX.

The South African was one of the tech industry magnates who met Trump on Wednesday‚ in a bid to mend fences with a largely pro-Hillary Clinton industry and promote job creation and trade.

The top 10 CEOs:

Larry Page – Alphabet

Mark Zuckerberg – Facebook

Jeff Bezos – Amazon

Warren Buffett – Berkshire Hathaway

Jamie Dimon – JPMorgan Chase

Elon Musk – Tesla and SpaceX

Jeffrey Immelt – General Electric

Rex Tillerson – ExxonMobil

Lloyd Blankfein – Goldman Sachs Group

Doug McMillon – Wal-Mart Stores.