In the beginning it was others whom he betrayed. Ultimately it must have dawned on him that he had betrayed himself. The others could recover or not; financially. Even so, these victims could, for the most, keep living. Shock and disgust from former friends, confidants & hangers-on has the ability to fade over time. In the end MARKUS JOOSTE was unable to face himself; and that is a death sentence – literally or figuratively. In his case, we now know how it ended.
“The saddest thing about betrayal is that it never comes from your enemies; it comes from those you trust the most, and in the ultimately betrayal, from yourself” – so says an anonymous quote. In the case of Markus Jooste it is so true. Unable to face himself, the mirror cracked.
HIS LIFE IN 6 POINTS
1. He qualified as a chartered accountant, almost top of the class. From a small GommaGomma furniture business he built the largest furniture retailer globally, second only to Ikea.
2. He bought Dr. Anton Rupert’s holiday home in Hermanus and lived there until his death.
3. Before his downfall, he was the second-biggest racehorse owner in the world after Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the ruler of Dubai.
4. Steinhoff shares drop 88% in less than 3 days after his multi-year global scam was exposed in 2017. The auditing firm PwC produced a report about his "fictitious or irregular" transactions worth 106 billion that had found their way into Steinhoff's financial statements.
5. The collapse of the Steinhoff share price wiped 200 billion off the Johannesburg Stock Exchange in a week, leaving pension funds and investors poorer.
6. The biggest shareholder, Christo Wiese, a storied South African billionaire lost 59 billion investing and swapping his Pep & Shoprite shares for Steinhoff shares.
His life touched many. In Stellenbosch those who already had too much, invested to get more. In the process many investors became millionaires, just to go bankrupt; some looking for jobs again.
His life is an object lesson in how talented, driven & super capable people succumb to greed & overreach; endlessly pursuing the impossible – until it sets off an out-of-control chain reaction. Like Bernie Madoff in New York, he constructed a house of cards, the level which we have not seen in South Africa. I am not surprised that he chose to kill himself. One cannot even begin to imagine the scale of the nightmare he was living in.
Reminds me of the words of President Ford upon his swearing in as the only non-elected American President after the resignation of Richard Nixon; ”I have seen the tragedies that befell three Presidents and have watched at close hand the trials of lesser ones…” A tragedy of epic proportions.
Markus Jooste told MPs when he appeared before parliament in 2018;"The word scandal is for writers of sensation." – well he wrote the most scandalous story of them all; to the bitter end.
TOO MUCH WAS NEVER ENOUGH