Berdin Odendaal and Markus Jooste.
- The SA Reserve Bank seized R42.1 million in cash and R18 million in real estate from Berdin Odendaal.
- The bank froze Odendaal's assets three years ago when it began freezing cash and assets in connection with the Steinhoff scandal.
- SARB previously announced that Odendaal had received a R60 million loan from Steinhoff's late chief executive Markus Jooste.
- For more financial news, visit: News24 Business Top Page.
The South African Reserve Bank has seized R42.1 million in cash and R18 million in property from Berdine Odendaal, who is rumored to be Markus Jooste's ex-girlfriend. Just days before her asset forfeiture was set to expire.
The funds and assets will be deposited in the state's revenue fund.
The forfeiture notice and order published in the Special Gazette on Monday states that the state will confiscate funds from five of Odendaal's bank accounts.
It has also seized an R18-million property in Odendaal's name in a luxury estate in Val de Vie, outside Paarl, where he lived for many years.
The central bank blocked Mr Odendaal's account in late April 2021 after discovering he had received a R60 million loan from a company linked to the late CEO Steinhoff.
Read | Ponies, clothes and TV: What Berdine Odendaal would do with R150,000 a month
At the time, the bank said Jooste and Steinhoff were suspected of ignoring exchange control rules when bringing funds into SA.
The bank had three years from the date the assets were attached to declare the assets forfeited. If we had not captured them by the end of April or early May of this year, they would have returned to Odendaal.
Ms Jooste's own assets, including family trusts worth more than R1 billion, were frozen by the SARB in October 2022.
The former Steinhoff CEO committed suicide in Hermanus on March 21, the day before he was ordered to be extradited to the Hawks.
The confiscation order against Odendaal appears to have brought an end to her years-long legal battle against the central bank.
After her assets were frozen in April 2021, she tried to get the bank to cover her legal costs and monthly expenses. Her agreement to have the bank pay for her living expenses, including her stable of polo ponies, was quickly finalized, but her agreement fell apart when she demanded that the bank pay her legal funds.
Odendaal's legal representatives did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
