Growing calls for ex-Steinhoff CEO Markus Jooste to face criminal charges

This after South African authorities on Tuesday gave the first clear indication that they now have Jooste on their radar.

The Western Cape High Court gave the South African Reserve Bank the go-ahead to attach assets belonging to Jooste, his wife Ingrid and son Michael.

The central bank carried out a raid on Tuesday.

"I think even this morning I have been in touch with the National Prosecuting Authority to check what is the current position so that we can move on this,” Lebeya told Parliament’s Standing Committee on Public Accounts on Wednesday.

“I think I have indicated in the past that certain process we were of the view that we can already move but we are not prosecuting but we present as the evidence as it comes to our attention.”

Meanwhile,  Benguela Global Fund Managers Chief Investment Officer Zwelakhe Mnguni says the SARB raid was encouraging.

"I think for me it is quite encouraging and to be honest I have been a bit more privileged in that as a complainant you can ask the investigator some questions and get regular updates from the police. There are certainly men and women in the police force that are committed into making sure that he is held accountable, and I don't think that it is only him to quite honest, there's quite a lot of people that are on the forefront. 

"What yesterday meant is that the party is over. For me the concern is that if this was a politician there would be so much drama and there would have been so much noise and we are not in the level of cooperate corruption.” 

Mnguni also believes that some of Jooste’s assets remain hidden.

"The move to took away the assets was a very great step, but I don't believe that these are all the assets that were Markus Jooste's possession. For example, Jooste is second person in the world that has the highest number of racehorses in the world, those assets are probably hidden somewhere. I think the criminal procedure needs to kick in and we are not very far from it.

"People should not underestimate the complicity of what Markus Jooste did in terms of the books and how he used his power to get certain numbers in and out of the books,” adds Mnguni.

 ALSO READ