CAPE TOWN – Five former Tekkie Town employees today delivered an application for leave to appeal the interim interdict obtained against them by Steinhoff controlled Pepkor in the Cape Town High Court on November 7.
The group is lead by Tekkie Town founder Braam van Huyssteen and includes Bernard Mostert, Dawie van Niekerk, Gert Claassens and Michael Brown. They, alongside 110 others, are also the founders of the newly launched national retailer Mr. Tekkie.
“We need to appeal in order to ensure that Pepkor will be stonewalled in their attempts to abuse and falsify the contents of the ruling,” said Mostert. “We view the application to appeal to be the responsible avenue to defend ourselves and also the legal system from the vexatious behaviour by Pepkor, Steinhoff and its senior leadership.”
Last week Pepkor provided the respondents with a list of footwear that they proclaimed Mr. Tekkie was not allowed to sell. The list – purported by Pepkor to be "Annexure A" of the ruling – was indeed not "Annexure A" but unilaterally produced by Pepkor nearly a week after the ruling was handed down.
The Pepkor-fabricated list was never placed before the Court. It was never audited or verified and contrary to Judge Elizabeth Baartman’s instruction was not provided to the respondents or the Court before judgement was delivered.
“We have an enormous degree of faith in South Africa’s legal system. That is why we have brought an action to restore our ownership and custodianship of Tekkie Town. At this stage Steinhoff - and Pepkor - seem to believe they can be both player and referee when it comes to matters concerning them,” said Van Huyssteen. “Whilst many victims cannot defend themselves from this type of behaviour, we are fortunately able to do so.”
Despite withdrawing their financial statements for multiple years in early 2018, Steinhoff have released neither restated financials nor any of the findings of PWC’s forensic investigation into shuddering accounting irregularities. The publication of the PWC report is expected to finally shed light on the extent of the alleged fraud that lead to widespread commercial destruction and stained South Africa’s reputation globally.