By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
File Photo.
The South African Reserve Bank (SARB) attached Markus Jooste’s mansion in Hermanus and the historic Lanzerac wine estate outside Stellenbosch.
The Western Cape High Court earlier this month granted the reserve bank’s application to attach all assets linked to Jooste and raided his properties on Tuesday.
The court papers state that the assets include Jooste’s Lanzerac wine farm in Stellenbosch, his Hermanus property and other assets registered under his Silveroak Trust valued at R1.2 billion.
The order to attach Jooste’s assets and those belonging to his Silveroak Trust follows years of legal battles to have Jooste face the law.
While Jooste is not facing any criminal prosecution for what is considered the biggest-ever financial scandal in the country, he’s in the process of losing all or most of his assets.
The court said any person in charge of Jooste’s premises shall grant full access to the Sherriff and forensic experts to examine any documents with information on exchange control regulations.
Personal assets declared by Jooste as of June 2021 including jewellery, paintings and firearms valued at just under R800,000 have also been attached.
Motor vehicles registered to Jooste’s wife, Ingrid, have also not been spared.
The papers have also listed Michael Jooste, Gary Harlow and Willem Du Plessis as respondents in their capacities as trustees of the Silveroak Trust.
This development follows Jooste’s role in perhaps the largest corporate scandal in South African history.
Indications of alleged financial misconduct at the Steinhof group first surfaced in December 2017.
This promptly saw the company’s share price on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) take a cataclysmic 95% dip in value.
In the process, investors — ranging from small retail investors to major shareholders like the Government Employees’ Pension Fund (GEPF) and billionaire businessman Christo Wiese — collectively lost more than R200-billion.
A forensic investigation by auditing firm PwC later determined that the alleged accounting fraud and other improprieties at Steinhoff had occurred over several years, between 2009 and 2017.