The death of former Steinhoff CEO Markus Jooste has dominated news events over the past couple of weeks, and it brings with it a renewed focus on South Africa’s biggest corporate scandal that has shaken the investment community. We find ourselves questioning how things could go so wrong.
Jooste had surrounded himself with some of the country's most astute and highly rated businesspeople. The former chairperson of Steinhoff was the proven business visionary leader Christo Wiese. His head of the Audit Committee was the ex-Absa CEO, Steve Boysen, other company directors included Stephan Grobler, Dirk Schreiber, former European finances chief, and ex-director Siegmar Schmidt.
According to media reports, Jooste was to be prosecuted for manipulation of the Steinhoff share price and misrepresentations to other businesspeople such as Jayendra Naidoo,