Party to fight big business graft

THE ANC is planning to take the fight against corruption to big business, as the fall-out over the accounting scandal that engulfed global retailer Steinhoff deepened.

Yesterday, Parliament’s standing committee on public accounts (Scopa), on the other hand, said it wanted to haul the company before the legislature and force it to take “decisive action to deal with the wrongdoers”.

The Gupta state-capture project, which Parliament is investigating, has brought into sharp focus corporate corruption, after global accounting firm KPMG and software company SAP conceded to flouting rules to aid the controversial family.

Energy Minister David Mahlobo said delegates at the party’s elective conference, starting on Saturday, would discuss rising corporate corruption. He said there was generally a softer stance on corporate corruption and this needed to changed.

Last week, Steinhoff admitted to “accounting irregularities” after it had repudiated an August report from a German publication that its employees were being investigated by prosecutors for a 2015 case of possible accounting fraud.

Mahlobo said such companies were getting away with slaps on their wrists.

“Remember, when financial institutions and the world economy collapsed, it started with Anglo, we all thought it was a small issue,” he said.

“But you could see that these institutions were not only collapsing but there were also serious ethical issuesgovernance issues… Ultimately, the most affected are the poorest of the poor.”

Scopa chairperson Themba Godi said yesterday that he wanted to see the committee taking on Steinhoff.