Steinhoff a failure rather than scandal, says Jooste
Former Steinhoff CEO Markus Jooste believes the implosion of retail giant Steinhoff was a corporate failure rather than a scandal.
Jooste appeared before Parliament’s joint sitting on Wednesday, where he gave his own account of events that transpired before the company lost 95% of its market value.
“In terms of the biggest corporate scandal, the biggest corporate failure in South Africa, yes.
"The word scandal is now the writers of sensation and of course it is saddened about the people that have lost money,” he told MPs.
Jooste attributed Steinhoff’s failures to the uncertainty created by the company failing to issue financial statements.
“The announcement was made that financial statements will be delayed pending a new independent investigation into the term accounting irregularities, which to me means fraud. And what happened after that announcement on the 6 (December) was that the share price, credit lines and the devastation happened,” he said.
ALSO READ: Ex-Steinhoff boss denies knowledge of accounts scandal
Jooste resigned from Steinhoff on December 4.
The former CEO also blamed auditing firm, Deloitte, which had suggested that another independent investigation take place following an investigation by German authorities.
“I was clear in my view that the Deloitte proposal at that stage in time would have had a devastating effect on the value of the share.
“I did not attend the supervisory board meeting the next day and was informed later that evening that the board decided to appoint new independent auditors to start an investigation totally from scratch and that my proposal was not accepted by the board.”
MPs did not take kindly to Jooste’s responses and what they believed to be a lack of accountability.
“You are coming across almost like you are the Mother Theresa of Steinhoff, right.
“It is only when you are being prodded by members that you concede prior to the nudging and cajoling almost by members, there wasn’t an inkling of regret.
“Like there is no a sliver of acknowledgement of the severe gravity of what's happened here,”said the finance committee chairperson Yunus Carrim