EDITORIAL: Pointed lessons from EOH’s fall
The implosion of what, until recently, was described as the most successful technology business in Africa, has left a crater in the corporate landscape
Anyone who thinks South Africans are lacking in innovation or creativity need only look at the fantastically inventive modes of corruption that have shot the country onto front pages across the globe in recent years.We have tender-rigging (Eskom); hiring of shady consultants at inflated amounts (Transnet and Sars); world-class accounting fraud (Steinhoff), and let’s-steal-the-bank looting (VBS).Last week, we had another Olympic-standard cautionary tale, this time from technology company EOH.For 20 years, EOH was the gold standard in building companies. From its listing in 1998 at R2.80, its share price grew 6,200% to R178 as it bought everything in sight. Then, in 2016, awkward questions began surfacing about some of EOH’s more odious partners, amid dark tales of kickbacks and corruption. Only, EOH would hear none of it. And for months it has been saying its corruption problem has been solved.For example, after revelations of shady deals relating to the social grants tender (and inv...
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