STEINHOFF SCANDAL
Hermanus residents express anger and sympathy over Jooste’s death by suicide
Stains were still fresh on the Hermanus rocks near the cliff paths, on the morning after former Steinhoff CEO Markus Jooste ended his life.
Traces of blood were still at the spot where disgraced former Steinhoff CEO Markus Jooste ended his own life when Daily Maverick visited the area on the morning of Friday 22 March.
The spot is at Kwaaiwater beach in Hermanus, about 20 minutes walk from the Jooste compound. Before reaching the area, there were also blood droplets on the trail leading to the scene. This was where authorities would have carried his body to get him to the hospital.
A member of the public takes photos at the scene where Markus Jooste died by suicide near Kwaaiwater beach in Hermanus, on 22 March 2024. (Photo: Shelley Christians)
Residents declined to speak on the record but shared contrasting views about the death.
“Any death is sad, but I wonder how he slept at night, after what he did,” said a resident who was jogging on the footpath above the spot where Jooste took his own life.
“I can tell you there is a feeling of resentment towards him in the area. There are a lot of unanswered questions, but we cannot change what happened.”
Another anonymous resident said the Jooste family maintained a low profile but “his arrogance did not go away. He was the most arrogant person we knew here. I do not think we imagined he would commit suicide, but it must have been tough for him and his family.”
Others said they felt sorry for the family.
Read more in Daily Maverick: Steinhoff mastermind Markus Jooste reportedly commits suicide shortly after R475m fine
Jooste allegedly shot himself at about 2.40pm on Thursday. Police said the 63-year-old sustained a gunshot wound to the head, and succumbed to his injuries shortly after arrival at a private hospital.
His death comes a day after he was informed that he had to pay a R475-million administrative penalty to the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) on or before Friday, 19 April 2024 — giving him a month to come up with the funds.
Michael Jooste, Markus Jooste’s son, talks on his phone at Jooste’s home in Voëlklip in Hermanus, on 22 March 2024. (Photo: Shelley Christians)
Until his death, the former Stellies old boy was stoic, maintaining in recent interviews with the FSCA that he was “unaware” of any financial irregularities.
Although Jooste attended FSCA interviews under notice and on dates arranged with his lawyers, his responses to most questions were not actual answers to the questions.
Back at the Jooste compound, Michael (Jooste’s son) was pacing up and down on a heated phone call. The compound, which covers more than two streets, was quiet, and there was no activity besides Michael in the garden. He did not respond when asked to speak to the media.
Outside the home of Steinhoff mastermind, Markus Jooste. So far, we have only seen his son, Michael inside the yard. pic.twitter.com/1UPgD575Y9
— Veve (@LudidiVelani) March 22, 2024
Residents were jogging past the compound and some pointed at it while having small conversations.
Neighbours said they did not hear anything until they saw ambulances in the area. No people were seen coming to pay their respects, or laying flowers outside the home.
The scene where Markus Jooste died by suicide near Kwaaiwater beach, on 22 March 2024. (Photo: Shelley Christians)
Planned protest
The Land Party, a party that grew out of land access and housing protests in Zwelihle, Hermanus in 2018, had planned a protest action on 1 May 2024. The planned protest was for worker’s rights and they were going to make it to the Jooste compound.
Read more in Daily Maverick: Disgraced, Departed: The Financial Sector Conduct Authority case against Markus Jooste
“The passing saddened us,” said Kholiswa Ngqandana, Land Party member and PR councillor in the Overberg Municipality. “We were going to march to ask that he publicly apologise and tell us when he is planning to pay back the pensioner’s money. The protest will go on as planned, but we will no longer come to his house as he is no more.”
Kholiswa Ngqandana, Land Party member and PR councillor in the Overberg Municipality, on 22 March 2024. (Photo: Shelley Christians)
Ngqandana said while Jooste was one of the rich people living in Hermanus, he never contributed to the poor. “Hermanus, like any other place in the Western Cape, has poor areas that are forgotten, but the people from these areas are used for their labour. The free houses from the government are in bad shape and not maintained. There are no services on the shacks we stay in since we occupied land in 2018.”
The Jooste family has not shared any public statements or made any comments, following the death. DM
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So, he was a thief. Takes a lot to kill oneself. How guilty must he have been…
No ANC cadre would do that.
ANC cadres are human. That thing wasn’t human. That was something else
Methinks not, he defrauded a company and it’s innocent members, your caders are defrauding and entire country and its innocent population…..
He stole millions, the ANC has stolen billions.
I think your scale is wrong on both. Markus Jooste stole billions. The ANC and cadres stole trillions
‘That thing’ had a conscience, hence the suicide. ANC never suicides as they have no conscience.
The ANC steals billions from the state, so taxpayer money.
Jooste stole millions from a company, big difference.
You think he killed himself for conscience? If so he would have done that long ago. It was fallen hubris.
Are you suggesting that ANC cadres are not thieves?
It would be tempting to call a great many ANC cadres “things” but that would betray ignorance of the worst kind. Everybody – including the thieving ANC – is a human being. The behaviour may be criminal and inhumane, but that does not entitle anyone to call them “things”.
ANC cadres don’t feel guilty only entitled.
It is disheartening that he stole the monies of the poor and end up not even contributing in his community to impact positively. I would have loved to witness him being held accountable in the court of law, regardless, may his soul rest in peace!
Pretty sure Mr Jooste paid taxes so he did in effect contribute to the never ending handout expected from the previously disadvantaged! Freedom does not mean getting things for free – not sure when the majority will recognise this. Unfortunately, those in power are not a very good example so the lesson goes unlearnt!
You think he paid taxes on what he stole? That’s a lively imagination you have!
Which “monies of the poor” did he “steal”?
Civil servants pension fund (PIC) where heavily invested in steinhoff. Not that our bloated incompetent civil service may be considered poor, but they are black. Seems these groups equate the two together?
As far as I know , pension funds do not commit more than about 2% to any single fund. This is risk mitigation. If that is so, the PIC should not have invested heavily in Steinhoff or any other company. So the reduction in Fund Value due to the collapse of the Steinhof share price would have been minimal. Not that this exonerates Markus Jooste in any way from his alleged wrongdoing.
They could have had up to 10%> Two percent is a typical holding for a medium-sized company.
To understand how much the PIC lost we must understand that the PIC is still a shareholder of Steinhoff.
We must first know
1. When the PIC invested in Steinhoff
2. How much it invested in Steinhoff
2. The realised returns in the form of dividends received and share sales through the years.
We also need to know why the PIC ignored all red flags, external and internal warnings.
Steinhoff’s share price did not collapse. It was a share price built on fraud and deceit of which the PIC was a beneficiary. The collapse was not caused by Jooste but rather Jooste built the fraudulent share price, and the truth corrected what Jooste had built through deceit.
The only people who can claim losses are those who came in at higher valuations created by the fraud. And no doubt the PIC’s continued association with Steinhoff and refusal to rock the boat did a lot for confidence in Steinhoff despite the German investigation.
If you think all people should keep giving to the poor after watching them unable to maintain what they had already been given for free, you smoked your own socks.
He f’ed up, and he is not the poor’s saviour. Move on.
I think most intelligent people can work out how financial industries crimes affect ordinary people, immediately or eventually. (Unless we think only the ANC corruption that makes people poorer…more obvious to us but not its voters!)
Do the taxes paid make up for all the grief? Take 2008 crash…yes bigger but the chain of causality is similar. Yes there may be a straighter line connecting actions of the departed to his end, not so easy connecting the deceased to similar ends of the defrauded. They never make the news. If they do, no one takes responsibility.
Now…the definition of ‘poor’ may be questioned. We don’t know the circumstances of those who invested and lost out. They may have not fitted the definition of poor people before…maybe they did after.
As to the destitute, the below the poverty line…why so much contempt for them? What plenty of opportunities are they accused of wasting before/during this government? In any case, in any society, even in the west, some people will waste given opportunities. Even the once advantaged in SA have been surpassed by the once disadvantaged. And I’m not talking BEE beneficiaries Many people have made their own way from the mud to the boardroom inspite of. If roles were reversed and the majority were put ahead instead, what would that look like? we can’t even imagine! World is still reeling from seeing non-blacks in shacks. If you were suppressed before and then let down after, how long will it take to stop being poor?
I think your reasoned response won’t be accepted well, based on what I read above and below. Markus Jooste was unrepentant and not willing to face the music. His suicide doesn’t lift the burden off his family. In Afrikaans they say:”hoogmoed kom voor die val” , and for good reason. His disdain for those he robbed brought him to that point because he was finally going to be charged. Trying to compare him with the ANC is ridiculous and shows why we are so divided as a country when it comes to caring for others less fortunate than ourselves. Those who do that are destroying their own arguments against corruption because they refuse to accept that he was a well-educated, corrupt thief and white. I guess white people don’t do such things
No contempt for the poor – just contempt for the voter who keeps on making the same mistake and not learning any lessons from them believing the lies made by the current government and wannabes!
I find it quite tastless to gossip about a suicide like this. Taking pictures of someone’s family is even worse…
Inclined to agree. Morbid fascination, I suppose. But the photographing of blood splatter is not just in the worst possible taste, it’s gross. Whatever cachet does one get from having the photo? What are the braais like at those folks’?
“Check this out, I got a photo of the blood from a guy that shot himself.”
Response: “You’re gross!”
Who could possibly be sorry about his suicide apart from family and his lawyers. Another fail too by the NPA who took far, far to long to prosecute…. Germany the Netherlands were way ahead.
I am actually sorry that he didn’t get to wear orange overalls for 20 years or more, but I guess where he has gone hopefully he will get a glowing pitchfork instead.
He was always going to off himself. It’s a surprise that all these years of ignominy and a social death of a high flier, socialite larger than life persona that left him with nothing but money for cold comfort in a sea of shame, disgrace, acrimony, isolation etc, he took this long to end his life.
RIP Markus!
I can’t hold back anymore as far as Markus is concerned.
Yes, he has made big mistakes and stolen from the poorest of the poor, but that has nothing to do with the ANC and its deeds, but everything to do with Claas Daun, Bruno and Norbert Steinhoff, Stehan Grobler, Frikki Nel and Jan van der Merwe.
Mainly Claas Daun, with the help of the above-mentioned people, drove Markus to fraud to save his insolvent companies.
I don’t believe in suicide. In my view, he has been encouraged to do so.
A former Daun manager is in prison for 10 years and can certainly comment on Daun.
Very sad about his death. Sure, he made mistakes but he has paid for it now. RIP Markus Jooste.
Why are you very sad? I, like others, would prefer to see him in jail and an outright victory for the NPA, but at least he isn’t on the streets bragging about his criminality anymore.
I’m not unhappy, but Daun is the main culprit and no one talks about it!
“The free houses from the government are in bad shape and not maintained. There are no services on the shacks we stay in since we occupied land in 2018.”
A large number of Eastern Cape refugees were bussed into Hermanus in 2018. Less than 6 years ago. Since then, they, the refugees, have destroyed the Schulphoek milkwood forest and, notwithstanding this, many have been provided with free RDP housing, leap-frogging the local coloured community who were promised this land and houses.
So these refugees break the law by destroying the milkwood forest and illegally occupying the land, then get free housing BEFORE the local coloured communities that have been here for more than a century, and they complain that the houses aren’t maintained?? Who the hell do the houses belong to?
And where in the world do you arrive, destitute, build a shack and demand free services?
Not only that, what pool of labour is Ngqandana talking about? The vast majority of the refugees have no work, and have had none since they arrived. They are largely unskilled and definitely not “a pool of labour”, instead they live primarily on the SASSA grants.
Well, the UK is very accommodating. Arrive by rubber dinghy, get to stay in a 4 star hotel with all meals and an allowance and then get a government house all for free.
All of that social housing comes with full maintenance thrown in…
You make it sound like a vacation
That was by intention. He is probably a far right voter.
It appears this option is only available to non Europeans!!!
This is not factually correct.
“ANC cadres are human. That thing wasn’t human. That was something else”
To make such a statement one must be a leader in a scientific field, or …. seething with hatred, driven by ignorance and controlled by uncontrollable anger.
It’s really sad to see readers making corruption a racial issue… Comparing Jooste, Watson Or Former Hullet Sugar Executives or say former Spar Chair person to the ANC does not make them less of criminals.. Corruption has no color… National Party stole Billions and the ANC also stole Trillions if you may but the fact remains they all stole from Citizens… I guess the only difference is that the national party got the job done unlike the ANC Mafias who just chow the money and get nothing done… Some black people are corrupt so are some white people, is that simple.. And Jooste was one of the worst
There has always been and will always be corruption in every country in the world. Not to say that this is OK. So there would have been corruption pre 1994 in SA Inc. However I feel that the ANC has raised the bar on fraud and theft to new heights. Billions certainly and possibly trillions. National Party? Millions over 48 years perhaps but surely not billions. However their policies certainly cost the country billions in today’s money, the effects of which are still with us today.
Good riddance 😡
That is scary to take his live but there is many people who suffer because of him he stole their money I hope Louis Liebenberg take note or go to jail where he belongs
I can’t help but wonder whether a more efficient and effective legal system couldn’t have prevented his suicide. Perhaps fraudsters would be less inclined to commit suicide if there were better mechanisms to recover stolen funds shuffled around from the inception of fraud. I think too often they leave in the comfort that their families will be well taken care of from their ill gotten fortunes. Without this comfort, they may stick around to look after their responsibilities differently.
Q. Was it necessary to post a picture of his son?
No, it wasn’t. Unless he (the son) knew something/was involved in any way – and I assume he didn’t/wasn’t – he and other members of the family should be left alone to mourn. But they shouldn’t be allowed to keep ill-gotten gains either – two whole streets for one family?! One house is enough.
One thing for sure…based on the commentary to this article…..the SA taxpayer and JSE investor is very very pissed off!
We had everything going for us ….everything….except for a few greedy, self interested and corrupt individuals who decided to play fast and loose with our new Democracy and hope for the future.
Does anyone actually believe he’s dead??
Pretty much everyone. Yes.
Good observation. With enough money one can easily have this entire thing faked…. watch this space.
This article is below the standard of DM. If you want the bloody detail go buy the You or Huisgenoot. Your photos are sick.