The whole saga of Markus Jooste and Steinhof caught me totally by surprise.  Firstly, I was an investor in Steinhof, but sold my shares in 2015.  I made good money in Steinhof shares because the first time I bought they were at R11 and I sold them at about R27.  Subsequently they went the whole way up to R70 and I think now they are back at about R5.  

Unlike a lot of people who say all sorts of things about Markus, I actually knew Markus very well.  I bought the same watch he had, after sending him an e-mail about what watch he was wearing, because I happen to like it, and I spent 6 years on the Racing Association Committee with him. That would mean that I was one of 6 people who would sit in meetings six times a year with Markus for 4 or 5 hours a time.  In other words, I did not just bump into him at a horseracing meeting and speak to him for 30 minutes but I have probably spent 150 to 200 hours of my life in the same meetings and same rooms as Markus, generally in a small group of 6 people.  

I can still say, whether that is embarrassing or not, he is the most intimidating and intelligent man I have ever come across.  What that has led to and what it is that he has allegedly done, I don’t know, but I can only tell you that he is exceptionally intelligent and if, for example, he started talking about company law or certain fields of law, I as a lawyer would very quickly realise he knew a lot more than any lawyers I know on those topics.  I know from friends that a number of other South African billionaires who knew Markus, including those who invested with him such as Christo Wiese, also considered Markus the most intelligent man that they had ever known.   I don’t know what comes next in the story, I don’t know what the future holds and I don’t know whether this is outright fraud or a manipulation of tax laws.  What is obvious is that whatever it is, flew right over the heads of the South African authorities and the only reason this has come out and the only reason there is a problem is because Steinhof is also listed on the German Stock Exchange.  I wonder, if they had stayed on the South African Stock Exchange whether any of whatever it is, and at the moment everybody is just speculating, would ever have come out?  When you read books like The President’s Keepers, all you do is read about how so many institutions of State had been absolutely destroyed by Zuma and his cronies and would not be capable of investigating some white collar crime, if that is what this is.