As a general norm, I don’t like speaking ill of the dead.
It’s something I have avoided doing on this page over the years. I think it is bad form, as the person can no longer defend themselves.
But for every rule, there must always be an exception. And in this case, that exception is Markus Jooste.
The former CEO of Steinhoff took his own life, by shooting himself in the head at his house in Hermanus last week, hours before he was reportedly due to be arrested.
His fellow Steinhoff executive Stephanus Grobler faced the music by himself, when he was arrested last week.
Jooste’s cowardly act brought to a dramatic end the sordid tale of the corporate graft that had enveloped him.
Over the past few years, Jooste had become the poster child for gluttonous greed and conspicuous consumption of the most contemptuous kind.
I have previously written about Jooste and the life of extravagance that he had been carving out for himself; not through any exceptional business acumen, but rather through manipulating financial statements.
So I thought I would remind you of some of the more egregious hedonism that Jooste stood out for.
He was a designer suit-and-tie shy of being a common gangster running an underworld enterprise in his determination to live a life of absolute luxury at any cost.
Two years ago, the Reserve Bank acted against him, attaching a fortune in material possessions, while he faced financial fraud charges amounting to billions of Rand.
In this case, he lost six luxury cars, more than R1.2 billion in investments, jewellery, a whole wine estate and a mansion in Hermanus.
I’m not sure if the unthinkable act was committed at the same address; which at one stage also housed works of art worth close to R100 million.
The very thought of one person illegally enriching themselves to the extent that they have paintings worth more than the lifetime earnings of entire communities, is just sickening to me.
It speaks of an unscrupulous person with so much money that they don’t know what to buy anymore.
And if that doesn’t leave an angry, bitter taste in your mouth, keep in mind that a lot of the Steinhoff money that magically vanished actually belonged to the Government Employees’ Pension Fund.
That means that this already stinking rich man stole the nest-eggs of government workers, so that he could show his friends all the pretty pictures he had hanging in his lounge.
The lack of shame and remorse continues to be staggering to this day.
Even more so Jooste’s then reported lover, Berdine Odendaal, who seemed to have collected excessive wealth without any gainful employment, business interests or reputable sources of income
She also fell foul of the Reserve Bank.
After her bank accounts were frozen, she wanted them to continue releasing R150 000 a month for her living expenses, which is where it gets interesting.
This is a woman, who according to investigators, lived the high life off money looted from Steinhoff.
According to her expenses list, she needed R70 000 for vet expenses, R10 000 for hair and beauty products, but only R4 000 for a domestic worker.
Hard working people robbed and exploited while an unemployed socialite owned a polo team, several mansions and six super expensive cars, a Ferrari being one of them.
Keep in mind that one of Steinhoff’s biggest investors was the government pension fund, whose main objective is to grow the pensions of public servants so they can retire in relative comfort, although nowhere near the luxury Jooste and Odendaal made themselves used to.
While news of her whereabouts and living arrangements are scarce these days, the Hawks were reportedly about to pounce on Jooste.
More embarrassing asset seizures were likely, along with possible criminal charges in Germany and there may well have been significant jail time looming in his future.
What strikes me most is that this sort of brazen greed continues to happen, despite how clear it has become that you cannot hide the ill-gotten gains.
It’s also clear that one day you may be showing off with all your nice new material things, while the next day you might be ushered out of that fancy house into a grimy police van, sporting rusty handcuffs.
dailyvoice@inl.co.za