Congress of the South African Trade Union (Cosatu) and its counterpart South African Federation of Trade Unions (Saftu) have joined hands in welcoming the recent court order granted in favour of the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) to seize the assets of Steinhoff CEO Markus Jooste. According to preliminary reports, the SARB has begun the seizure of some of Jooste's assets on suspicion that he violated exchange controls during his time at the helm of Steinhoff.
According to media reports, SARB has attached cars and homes belonging to Jooste, including a silver Mercedes Benz SL600, a green Land Rover Defender, a white Lexus LX570, jewellery, a mansion in Hermanus and the exclusive Lanzerac wine estate outside Stellenbosch, are just some of the assets linked to former Steinhoff CEO Markus Jooste, the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) has attached.
This comes after the Western Cape High Court, on Tuesday, granted SARB’s application to attach all assets linked to Jooste, who is accused of breaching the exchange control regulations. The assets are estimated to be worth well over R1.2bn.
Saftu said Jooste engineered fraud, artificial inflation of Steinhoff profits and assets, when he engaged in insider trading.
“Markus Jooste engineered a fraud – artificial inflation of Steinhoff profits and assets – which precipitated the greatest corporate scandal of the recent period. In the wake of which, Steinhoff’s share price crashed by 95%. In that corporate crash, the government pension holder, the Government Employee Pension Fund (GEPF), lost more than R20 billion. Primarily for this reason, Saftu has vested interest in the matter, to bring Jooste and his accomplices to book,” Saftu spokesperson Trevor Shaku said.
Cosatu said the same, adding that the issue has dragged on for too long, as Jooste and his associates have not been held accountable for the serious criminal offences he has been accused of so far.
“For too long, Markus Jooste and his associates have not been held to account for the serious criminal offences they have been accused of. For too long, their assets were not attached and protected from disposal. For too long, they have not been brought to court and made to account. This is despite the extensive public hearings that Parliament held on this critical matter for thousands of workers and pensioners,” Cosatu spokesperson Sizwe Pamla said.
Jooste, who resigned from Steinhoff in late 2017 when the first signs of a major accounting scandal came to light, was fined R162 million in October 2020 by the Financial Sector Conduct Authority for insider trading.
Cosatu added that the NPA needs to act against Jooste, adding that the law needed to take its course.
“The NPA needs to wake from its slumber. They cannot be allowed to continue to sleepwalk on such a massive alleged criminal operation that costs workers billions of rands,” Pamla said.