Steinhoff’s Sonn resigns

Steinhoff International’s chairperson Heather Sonn has resigned following the acknowledgement of a conflict of interest with a company she was a shareholder in a company that transacted with Steinhoff.

Explaining her resignation, Sonn said: “A company in which I am a shareholder, Gamiro Ventures, unwittingly completed a transaction with a company, Geros Financial Services, that now appears may have been associated with and [indirectly] funded by the company.

“In December 2017 I requested that this transaction be placed on the list for investigation by PwC when a name in the shareholding structure of the shareholder of Geros was recognised as a name that also appeared in the Viceroy Report.

“Unfortunately, it has taken over two years to get to a conclusion as to the nature of the relationship between the company and Geros, but there were multiple priorities for the company at the time.

“Based on what is now known to me it would have required certain disclosures which I would have made had I been aware thereof.

“At the [Steinhoff] 2018 AGM, I indicated that the company and the supervisory board would hold itself to the highest standards of governance, given the heightened sensitivity specifically relating to compliance and the desire to avoid any unnecessary challenges to the Company.

“It is therefore incumbent upon me to apply this standard to myself.”

Sonn is a major shareholder in an investment company called Gamiro, which is a controlling shareholder in a company called Blake and Associates Holdings. Blake includes among its clients the JD Group, which is owned by Pepkor, a subsidiary of Steinhoff.

Blake is one of a panel of external debt collectors contracted at “arm’s length” by the JD Group and is subject to the same terms and conditions as other service providers.

Steinhoff said the service relationship between the JD Group and Blake predates both the inclusion of the JD Group as part of Steinhoff and the date on which Gamiro acquired Blake.

In 2017 Gamiro procured an option to acquire an interest in Blake from (a subsidiary of) Geros.

Sonn served on the board of Blake fro15 May 2017 until 17 January, 2018.

Moneyweb

SIP Project Managers (the taxpayer) vs The Commissioner for Sars (South African Revenue Service) relates to Sars’s appointment of Standard Bank as a third-party agent to withdraw funds from the taxpayer’s bank account to settle a tax debt.

Except the taxpayer had received no letters of demand from Sars and, even worse, there was no tax debt.

Background

On 30 June, 2019, the taxpayer was issued with an assessment that reflected a tax refund of R1.6 million. However, the taxpayer was not aware that Sars later issued an additional assessment requiring R1.2 million to be paid by 30 November, 2019.

The taxpayer first became aware of this additional assessment on 6 February, 2020, when Standard Bank received notification from Sars to pay R1.3 million