A story of scandal, hubris and mystery

Jan Cronje - When Markus Jooste abruptly resigned as Steinhoff’s CEO in late 2017, he was one of South Africa’s best-known and most respected businessmen.

Through a combination of grit and financial genius, he had built Steinhoff from a small regional low-cost furniture company to a giant that could hold its own against the likes of Ikea.

At least, that was the story that South Africa had eagerly embraced.

Before Jooste resigned and Steinhoff's share price plummeted, it was one of the largest companies on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. For almost two decades, it was a staple of South African pension funds and most investors.

Steinhoff was, on the one hand, a boring old-fashioned company that sold chairs, lounge suites, and sofas. At the same time, it somehow managed to grow and trade like a tech stock.



Mystique

How was this apparent discrepancy explained? By pointing to Jooste's unique business acumen. For years, a mystique had grown around Jooste.

Those who worked with him described him as brilliant and charming. They shared stories, some true and some probably apocryphal, about how Jooste was able to get others to do what he wanted.

One story told of how Jooste and friends walked out of army barracks as a conscript for a night of partying on the town by bamboozling the stern sergeant. Few knew if the story were true. In the end, it didn't really matter. It all added to his mystique.

Jooste died by suicide on Thursday evening before he had to hand himself over to the Hawks.



Downfall

The mystique around Jooste evaporated once the Steinhoff story turned out to be an illusion.

Its stellar growth was built on a foundation of fake profits and financial trickery. In early 2023, Steinhoff's shareholders voted to dissolve the company and delist from the Frankfurt and Johannesburg Stock Exchanges.

After he resigned from Steinhoff in 2017, Jooste chose not to mount a fightback in the media to clear his name.

Instead, he kept a low profile, spending time between his mansion in Hermanus, Lanzerac wine estate and an intimate circle of friends who remained loyal to him.

Despite hundreds of newspaper articles, multiple books, and series about his time at Steinhoff, his silence meant he remained something of an enigma.



Parliament

In 2018, he appeared before Parliament at a testy hearing where MPs tried to get him to come clean.

A combative Jooste denied any wrongdoing, blaming the plunge in the group's share price on a deal gone wrong with an ex-German business partner.

He said that had things been handled differently, Steinhoff would still be doing fine. There was no fraud at the company, he added.

"The word scandal is for writers of sensation," he told the MPs.

"I did not come here to blame anybody. I personally believe all the colleagues I worked with worked in the best interests of the company. They gave their lives, it was part of the daily DNA of the business."



Legal cases

As evidence of wrongdoing at Steinhoff mounted, Jooste kept silent.

In legal cases brought against Jooste by Steinhoff, SA's financial watchdog and others, his lawyers denied that their client did anything wrong or had any knowledge of fraud at the group.

The legal documents give little insight into the man accused of running SA's largest private sector fraud.

His closest friends and confidants formed a tightly knitted group around him and did not spill his secrets. This means that relatively little was known of Jooste's private life, apart from his love of horse racing, which he inherited from his father.

Jooste was, at one stage, one of the largest stud owners in Africa.

He was a co-owner of the Klavervlei stud farm, which had 10 stallions and about 250 mares at its height. He said his stud farm was run on the same lines as Steinhoff.

"I run my operation like I do my business. I make the chain of activity a complete cycle. At Steinhoff we grow the trees, cut the wood, make the furniture and sell the furniture. My racing business is modelled on the same lines," he told the Sporting Post in 2011.

He told the same publication that, apart from horse racing, his great love was for the Blue Bulls.



Mastermind

One of the most detailed descriptions of Jooste as a businessman came from his colleague Dirk Schreiber, a former managing director of Steinhoff Europe Group Services.

"No decisions were made without the backing of Mr Jooste," Schreiber told a German court last year.

Schreiber said it was Jooste who had masterminded Steinhoff’s business activities across its European operations from the shadows.

Even though the European companies had their own management boards, it was Jooste's instructions being carried out.

Jooste, he said, "knew how to manipulate" those who worked for him.

Schreiber ended up being sentenced to three-and-a-half years in jail, with one year suspended.



Germany

The former Steinhoff CEO never got to deny the accusations in court.

He failed to arrive for the start of his trial in Germany, arguing that he was effectively blocked from leaving South Africa. The South African government stringently denied blocking his passport.

True to form, Jooste didn't offer a public explanation for the passport fiasco. As before, his only response was silence.

A day after being fined R475 million by the Financial Sector Conduct Authority, and before he was due to report to the Hawks, Jooste died.

It means that all that remains of the enigma of Markus Jooste will be silence as well. – Fin24