Overdue lessons from Van Vuuren’s classic as Steinhoff stink tarnishes SA business

By Alec Hogg

It’s took me far too long to open Hennie van Vuuren’s superb Apartheid, Guns and Money. At an intimidating 600-plus pages, there always seemed to be other reading priorities. Now that I’m a quarter way through, it’s obvious the postponement was my loss.

For me, Van Vuuren’s book ranks alongside Jacques Pauw’s The President Keeper’s as a must-read. Especially for those around in the 1980s who were oblivious to the bad habits which became ingrained in SA’s business community. Itself a rational result given the way business was incentivised by a government that portrayed sanctions-busting as national service.

This book is a reminder to the South African business sector that it carries a huge responsibility to clean up its own back yard and, in particular, remove whatever skeletons remain in secret cupboards. Not least because the Steinhoff fraud has tainted the entire sector and destroyed trust that will take years to rebuild.

It’s mind blowing how Steinhoff fooled many of the best minds on earth, those who inhabit the world’s biggest banks, ratings agency Moody’s, Deloitte and even the European Central Bank. Those global worthies tend not to be fooled twice. To speed up rehabilitation of a reputation so badly tarnished, SA business will not only need to rapidly clean up its act, but be seen to be doing so.

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