The South African Reserve Bank (SARB) has seized R42.1 million in cash and an R18 million property from Berdine Odendaal, the alleged former romantic partner of late Steinhoff CEO Markus Jooste. The assets were confiscated just before the expiration of a deadline to seize her assets. The funds and property will be deposited in the state’s National Revenue Fund.
The notice and order of forfeiture, published in a special gazette on Monday, states that the state will confiscate funds from five of Odendaal’s bank accounts. It is also seizing an R18 million property in Odendaal’s name in the exclusive Val de Vie estate outside Paarl, where she has lived for years.
The central bank blocked Odendaal’s accounts in late April 2021 after it found she had received R60 million in loans from a company linked to the late Steinhoff CEO. At the time, the bank said it suspected that Jooste and Steinhoff had flouted exchange control provisions when they brought the funds into SA.
The bank had three years from the date the assets were blocked to declare them forfeit. Had it not seized them by late April or early May this year, they would have returned to Odendaal.
Jooste’s own assets, including a family trust worth more than R1 billion, were frozen by the SARB in October 2022. The former Steinhoff CEO died by suicide in Hermanus on 21 March, a day before he had been ordered to hand himself over to the Hawks.
The forfeiture order against Odendaal appears to bring her long-running legal battle against the central bank to a close. After her assets were frozen in April of 2021, she tried to get the bank to cover her legal fees and monthly expenses. While an agreement was hashed out to have the bank pay her living expenses – including the stabling of her polo ponies – it broke down when she demanded the bank pay her legal funds.
Odendaal’s legal representative did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
