Boschendal, whose history dates back as far as 1685, is being sold for 323m rand ($52m; �30m).

A Luxembourg-based firm will take 70%, while the other 30% goes to Kovacs Investments 608, which is run by two former politicians from the ruling ANC.

South Africa has a policy of fostering non-white ownership of firms to rebalance the post-apartheid economy.

The aim is to have 10-15% of the 99% white-owned wine industry in non-white hands within five years.

Top jobs

Chairing Kovacs is Chris Nissen, former leader of the Western Cape for the African National Congress from 1990 to 1996.

Two black empowerment companies he heads own a total of 45% of Kovacs.

The rest is in the hands of companies led by Kovacs managing director Lunga Ncwana, himself a senior figure in the ANC Youth League since 1999, and Aharif Pandor, a businessman with extensive experience setting up empowerment deals.

Citation Holdings, the Luxembourg-based group buying the other 70%, is run by a Zimbabwean-born property developer and a British banker.

Its owners include a number of Caribbean-based investors.

Long history

Boschendal's sale by current owners Anglo American marks the introduction of black ownership of a winery that once was an integral part of the white establishment.

The company was once part of the family empire of Cecil Rhodes, the British colonist and businessman who died 1902.

It passed into the joint ownership of Anglo and its diamond offshoot De Beers in 1969.