Vetkoek with Jooste leaves a different taste now

The first time I met Markus Jooste, in August last year, he offered me a vetkoek with mince. We were at Shoprite’s new Cilmor Distribution Centre in Brackenfell, Cape Town, for the presentation of the retailer’s full-year results, a few months after Steinhoff and Shoprite had announced a possible merger in a deal that had collapsed twice before.

By August, Steinhoff had separated its European and African assets, settling on Steinhoff Africa Retail (STAR), the unit which, it was hoped, would make a merger more palatable for Shoprite’s investors.

During lunch, which in true Shoprite form was a display of R5 meals it was rolling out into the market, Jooste perused the items, finally settling on the vetkoek and mince.

After some awkward small talk about Cape Town weather, I casually asked him his reason for being at the Shoprite results.

“Have you tried these [vetkoek]? Nothing like the ones from Cape Town,” he said.

After another awkward pause, he finally said: “I’m just here as a guest.”

Lately, Jooste has been guest starring in the numerous new reports on Steinhoff, appearing only by mention after claims that he — along with those whose names we don’t know yet — had manipulated Steinhoff’s accounts, bringing the company into disrepute and collapsing its share price to R1.82 from R75.08 just a year before.

In many news reports he’s become “that guy who did some really messed up stuff but we’ll only mention him on a casual basis”.

On Friday, Steinhoff’s share price shot up as much as 13.8% after reports broke that it was in talks with creditors on a potential restructuring — a plan that its largest shareholder, Christo Wiese, endorsed a few weeks ago.

Heather Sonn, Steinhoff’s chairwoman, has been dealt a poor hand. But her real test will be working with her new board towards restructuring the company’s debt of more than €10.4-billion (about R156-billion).

Adding fuel to an already difficult situation, Steinhoff has had a number of court cases thrown its way since the floodgates of hell opened in December last year.

Most of its shareholders, former business partners and fund managers have slapped it with heavy lawsuits.

One also came from Wiese, Jooste’s former ally, for R59-billion — the cost of the investments made by Wiese’s companies in Steinhoff in 2015 and 2016.

The man who once jokingly referred to Jooste as his “heir” has now distanced himself from the runaway former CEO, claiming that the last time they spoke was in December last year, before Steinhoff imploded.

Jooste, who supposedly orchestrated Steinhoff’s downfall, is nowhere to be seen, heard or even reached. The last memory I have of him is him eating that vetkoek in his suit, which, with hindsight, leaves a very bad taste in my mouth.

The guy who did some really messed up stuff who we’ll only mention on a casual basis