ActionSA welcomes the sentencing of former Steinhoff CFO to 5 years’ imprisonment

4 October 2024

ActionSA welcomes the sentencing of former Chief Financial Officer of Steinhoff, Andries Benjamin La Grange, to 5 years’ imprisonment by the Pretoria Specialised Commercial Crimes Court following his conviction for fraud.

Recognised as one of the largest frauds in corporate South Africa, Andries was convicted of one count of fraud involving over R367 million, stemming from the manipulation of financial statements and the failure to report fraudulent activities at Steinhoff, cumulatively amounting to a staggering R105 billion fraud.

ActionSA believes that while his sentencing is lenient considering the seriousness of his crimes, it marks a slow but steady shift in South Africa’s justice system towards exerting the full extent of the law against those who engage in grand corruption, especially at this scale and in the private sector, where the funds of South African’s and pensioners were criminally misappropriated and lost in this fraud. We also hope that his plea bargain will result in evidence that enables the successful prosecution of others involved in this grand heist.

Whether in the private or public sector, ActionSA has declared corruption as public enemy number one, recognising that without strict punitive measures, we will never win the war against this pervasive cancer that has robbed South Africa and her people of so many opportunities.

An ActionSA government would work towards strengthening South Africa's financial controls, particularly in light of the fact that corruption has severely compromised the country's financial integrity, contributing to challenges such as our greylisting by the Financial Action Task Force, which highlighted deficiencies in the very controls meant to prevent such abuses as evidenced in the Steinhoff matter.

Issued by Alan Beesley, Member of Parliament, ActionSA, 4 October 2024