Shoprite announced a record dividend after a robust set of annual results and a reduction in debt, delivering a huge windfall for its biggest shareholder and former chair, Christo Wiese, whose wealth collapsed in 2017.

SA’s largest supermarket chain, which was transformed by Wiese from a small eight-store company into a retail juggernaut with almost 3,000 outlets, will pay a dividend of 544c per share, or R3.2bn, up 42% from 2020. It is the highest monetary dividend it has paid...