
Pretorius, a lawyer by training, joined DRDGold as legal adviser in 2003 and has been chief executive since 2009, remaking the company from a marginal underground miner into a surface tailings retreatment business built on the Ergo and Far West Gold Recoveries operations. He is steering the R10bn Vision 2028 expansion and in August 2026 reported an 89% rise in annual headline earnings and a record dividend.