The Chairperson of the Standing Committee on Finance, Mr. Yunus Carrim, has confirmed that there is no change in the decision to have hearings on the Steinhoff scandal at the end of January.

The hearings will be held jointly with the Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa) as also confirmed by Scopa’s Chairperson, Mr. Themba Godi, and the Public Service and Administration Portfolio Committee as confirmed by Chairperson, Mr. Cassel Mathale.

Depending on outstanding administrative issues, the hearings will be on 30 or 31 January.

Mr. Carrim said it’s absolutely not true that the hearings are being held at the request of Mr. David Maynier, as he claims.

“Actually, I acted immediately after the issue broke out and decided that the Committee would have to have hearings on this matter well before Mr. Maynier wrote to me and rushed to the media. I also received a call from Mr. Floyd Shivambu regarding the matter – and Mr. Godi had already issued a statement,” Mr Carrim said.

“I wrote to the Financial Services Board (FSB), South African Reserve Bank, Public Investment Corporation, Government Employees Pension Fund, Independent Board for Auditors and JSE informing them about the pending hearings and requesting them to provide us with the scope or terms of reference of the FSB investigation into Steinhoff and the possible timelines for the completion of the investigation,” he said.

“They were asked to respond within seven days and their responses were forwarded to Committee members by 22 December 2017. All Mr. Maynier had to do was phone or SMS me to check on progress, and not seek to claim that it’s only the DA component in the Committee that cares about an issue of such national importance that should really cut across petty political party rivalries. Mr. Maynier’s political posturing only exacerbates the situation.”