The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) welcomes the conviction and sentencing of Steinhoff co-accused, Mr. Iwan Shelbert, who pled guilty to fraud and agreed to turn state witness in exchange for a five-year sentence.
This is a welcome and long overdue victory, albeit tardy and minimal, for workers and pensioners who saw R24 billion in pension and other funds lost in the Steinhoff heist, one of the most notorious in South African history. Whilst appreciating this victory, COSATU is deeply disappointed that it has taken the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) eight years to secure this conviction.
The leadership of the NPA for years has offered meaningless platitudes to the public that it is busy building a case to ensure justice for the victims of Steinhoff with few convictions to show for their losses and pain. Whilst the NPA’s leadership has been slumbering their way through life, the key perpetrators of the Steinhoff heist have escaped justice.
The consequences of the embarrassing failures by the NPA to act for many years, have not only been felt by the workers and pensioners who were robbed of their hard-earned savings, but the nation at large.
Workers paid a further price to state capture and corruption with the nation’s resulting grey listing. International investors and pension funds are extremely reluctant and often prohibited from investing in grey listed or sanctioned economies. This period of grey listing was a painful blow for a stagnant economy bleeding jobs and battling a 42.4% unemployment rate. Whilst the African National Congress led government and Parliament have made positive progress to ensure South Africa’s exit from grey listing, we cannot afford to be complacent.
The less than inspiring performance of the NPA must sound alarm bells in government and Parliament. Interventions are needed in the pending 2026/27 Budget to ensure that the NPA has all the resources it requires to win the war against crime and corruption, in particular the filling of prosecutorial and other skilled vacancies. The courts too, need to be given the resources required to end the massive backlog in cases and to expedite those involving serious commercial crimes.
COSATU looks forward to Advocate Andy Mothibi taking over as the National Director of Public Prosecutions next month. The NPA desperately needs leadership with the necessary passion and hunger for justice and the capacity to deliver. Society, in particular the working class, needs to see the tide turning in the war against crime and corruption. Winning this war is key to fixing the state, growing the economy, creating jobs and improving the lives of all South Africans. Society is correctly impatient and expects more from the state organs tasked with this mandate.
Issued by COSATU
Matthew Parks (COSATU Parliamentary Coordinator)
Mobile: 082 785 0687
Email: matthew@cosatu.org.za
