Jooste ‘knew nothing of wrongdoing’
Ex-Steinhoff boss grilled by MPs
Steinhoff’s former boss Markus Jooste was not aware of any accounting irregularities when he left the retailer in December, he told MPs during a parliamentary inquiry which is examining an accounting scandal that rocked the company.
Jooste resigned after the company uncovered accounting irregularities. The scandal hit Steinhoff’s shares and left the retailer scrambling for working capital.
He was instrumental in transforming Steinhoff from a small Johannesburg furniture outfit into a multinational retailer.
In his first public testimony about the scandal on Wednesday, he said he never lied about activities of the company and neither did he sell his shares in Steinhoff nor hold a short position on its stock. He told the inquiry that he lost R3-billion due to the fall in the company’s shares after the scandal was uncovered.
“I must place on record that when I left Steinhoff on the 4th of December, I was not aware of any accounting irregularities they are referring to,” Jooste said. “I don’t blame anybody for what happened.”
In July, creditors agreed to hold debt claims for three years, removing an imminent threat of default that would have tipped the company into bankruptcy. Steinhoff’s chairperson Heather Sonn told the parliamentary committee a week ago that its board would meet to discuss asset sales to boost cash flow and pay down debt, months after creditors threw it a lifeline.
Jooste said his main mistake during his tenure was agreeing to a joint venture with Seifert, adding that Steinhoff probably grew too quickly.
After the hearing Yunus Carrim, the chairperson of the standing committee on finance, the parliamentary committee hearing Jooste’s testimony, said its members felt Jooste could have been more forthcoming.
“His account to parliament reinforces our call that the regulatory bodies and other state agencies should act swiftly and more decisively,” Carrim said.
He said the committee recognised the complex and global nature of corporate scandals such as Steinhoff’s and the huge amount of forensic and other investigative work needed to establish exactly what happened, but he said there should have been more progress 10 months after the scandal was uncovered. – Reuters