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Steinhoff hands over 15 years of financial records to unions

Stellenbosch - Steinhoff [JSE:SNH] has agreed to allow the Federation of Unions of South Africa (Fedusa) and the Public Servants Association (PSA) access to financials dating as far back as 2002.

This is according to deputy general manager of the PSA Tahir Maepa, who spoke to media outside Steinhoff’s headquarters in Stellenbosch on Friday.

PSA general manager Ivan Fredericks and Fedusa general secretary Dennis George, along with their legal team, met with Steinhoff’s attorneys.

They had requested to inspect the financial records to gain more insight before making a decision on laying criminal charges against the retail group, following the fallout from Steinhoff's accounting scandal in December last year.

Former Steinhoff CEO Markus Jooste resigned with immediate effect at the time, after the global furniture and clothing retailer reported irregularities in its accounts that require further investigation.

Initially Steinhoff decided to only make partial information available to the unions, as they are not direct shareholders.

Maepa is of the view that the unions are indeed entitled to the information in terms of the Companies Act and that, given that Steinhoff is handing over the information, they will not have to seek action from the courts.

The charges are related to fraud, misrepresentation and intention to harm, George told media ahead of the meeting on Friday morning. George also said the unions would not want to "make a mess of things" by rushing the process.

He stressed that the unions want to send a message to the private sector about the importance of corporate governance, as the matter has caused reputational damage to the country and also affected the pensions of its members.

Later on Friday morning Maepa updated journalists on the proceedings.

"After some discussion with lawyers and some persuasion, they (Steinhoff) decided they would give us all the information, including financial records of Steinhoff dating back to at least 2010," he said. 

"Obviously the process will take some time - they will probably put it in memory sticks because it is voluminous information."

Maepa said the intention is to make the information public this week as it is in the public interest.

Following the meeting, Fredericks told media that Steinhoff had handed over documents since 2002, they were contained in three boxes and a bag. 

No sign of Jooste

"The situation is that they are also conducting their investigation. They are waiting for their auditors to look at the behaviour of Markus Jooste - whom they allege they don’t know where he is... at the end of the day it makes no difference to us, we know where Steinhoff is, we know where they are. How they get hold of Markus Jooste is something else," said Maepa.

In his view, the police will have to "hunt him (Jooste) down" if the unions lay charges against him.

"All the billionaires - we are taking them on - all of them," Maepa said in response to a question about whether the unions will lay charges against other executives.

"But the fact of the matter is, once we have that information, we can take it to the next level, whereupon we can decide on a course of action," he said.

Sun Met boycott

Maepa added that the unions are calling for a boycott of the Sun Met next week.

"(This is) because the SA Racing Association, including Sun International, refused our request that they must stop any of Markus Jooste’s horses participating in the event," he said.

"Even though he has relinquished his colours, his horses are still running through associates and friends... We believe Sun International in particular cannot want to be associated with such an individual after what has happened."

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