Tag: Steinhoff

South African businesses do not need to look far for a cautionary tale. The fallout from the Steinhoff scandal continues to reveal how weak governance, inadequate scrutiny of business relationships and unchecked transactions can destroy billions in shareholder value. What began as aggressive growth ultimately became one of the country’s most expensive lessons on the cost of insufficient oversight.

On 26 June 2020, the High Court in Johannesburg dismissed with costs an application for the certification of a class action by Steinhoff shareholders against the directors and auditors of Steinhoff companies, having determined that the shareholders do not have a triable case. 

Many organisations are reluctant to manage their ethics performance. Why? When leading practice has moved beyond the question of whether ethics can actually be ‘managed’ (taking it as given that it can), and huge efforts are underway getting the ‘how’ of ethics management right as well, it seems perverse to ignore this aspect of organisational life.

The media reports are full of such stories; albeit cheating in sports, State capture, wide-scale corruption at governmental, provincial, municipal, parastatal, corporate and the...

Is the accounting profession experiencing a crisis of credibility? Current events locally and internationally are demanding higher levels of accountability in the accounting and auditing professions. Unethical accounting and auditing practices in South Africa have reverberated globally, with the reputations of large accounting and auditing firms severely damaged by their links to public service corruption and financial misrepresentation by large multinational companies like Steinhoff.