Steinhoff’s continued refusal to provide access to a 7,000-page PwC report on its R200bn collapse hampers journalists’ ability to tell the full story.
Illustrative image | Former Steinhoff CEO Markus Jooste. | A Steinhoff International Holdings logo at the company’s offices in Stellenbosch in 2016. |
We know that this was South Africa’s biggest corporate fraud and that ordinary South Africans were the biggest losers in the company’s collapse: the Government Employees Pension Fund and other investment groups holding individuals’ pensions were major shareholders. Steinhoff refused both the Paia requests, maintaining that the report had been commissioned by its lawyers — Werksmans — so that they could provide legal advice to Steinhoff, and was therefore legally privileged.and took Steinhoff to court, asking the Western Cape High Court to order the company to release the report to us.It repeated its belief that the report was legally privileged and that it had never waived that privilege.
This meant, Steinhoff said, that because the PwC report contained personal information it would be liable to penalties for breaching those Dutch and European laws if it provided us with the report. It seems leery of the vital role the media plays in investigating, reporting on and holding accountable those responsible for corporate crimes.
Paia is the law that gives effect to this constitutional right. Although it does permit access requests to be refused on certain grounds, these refusals are not lawful when accessing information would be in the public interest and would reveal evidence of a “substantial contravention of, or failure to comply with, the law”.
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