Eric Molobi was born on June 5, 1947. Molobi was imprisoned on Robben Island during the apartheid era. While in prison he obtained a bachelor's degree from the University of South Africa (UNISA).
Following his release from Robben Island, he worked for the Munich Re Insurance Company of South Africa as an insurance underwriter and was subsequently recruited by the South African Council of Churches (SACC) to set up a community development programme aimed at the disadvantaged youth of South Africa, while at the same time was group chairperson of Kagiso. He co-founded Kagiso Trust Investments in 1994 and had served as its executive chairperson since 1996.
He chaired several companies within the wider Kagiso group, was the vice-chairperson of Imperial Holdings and a former chairperson of Telkom. In 1990, he joined the Kagiso Charitable Trust (Kagiso Trust) as chief executive, where he was responsible for raising funds from foreign government agencies to channel into educational and community development projects in South Africa.
He was awarded the prestigious Ordre National de la Legion D'Honneur by the French government in 1994. Other positions he held were directorships of Imperial Holdings, Metropolitan Holdings, the National Housing Finance Corporation, Northam Platinum, the Rembrandt Group, NM Rothschild and Sons (South Africa) and Steffen Robertson and Kirsten (South Africa).
Molobi died on 5 June 2006 aged 58 after a battle with cancer. He is survived by his wife Martha, daughters Tiisetso and Seipati and two grandchildren. At the time of his death, Molobi responsible for the overall strategic direction of Kagiso Trust Investment Company (Proprietary) Limited as Executive Chairman.