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Since everyone is talking about Markus Jooste, the Steinhoff CEO who orchestrated the biggest corporate scam in South African history, the name of his alleged mistress has also been popping up all over the show.

Shame, Berdine Odendaal, you probably haven’t been able to survey the Atlantic Seaboard from your luxury Bantry Bay balcony in peace for a while now.

Thousands of local and foreign investors, ranging from small to major shareholders, lost their investments – a figure of more than R200 billion – during the financial collapse of Steinhoff in 2017.

This included South African billionaire businessman Christo Wiese, who is more than relieved that the SA Reserve Bank has taken initiative, finally attaching the former Steinhoff CEO’s assets worth billions of rands.

That includes the Lanzerac Wine Estate in Stellenbosch, which he sold to Jooste but which he wants back now in exchange for Jooste’s “worthless [Steinhoff] shares”.

Last year, SARB investigators also attached the assets of Odendaal, which if you know anything about her, seem to be all thanks to Jooste.

In 2017, it was reported that Odendaal and Jooste were indeed more than just friends, where she was provided with the luxury of living like a lady in the 1920s, all funded by the disgraced ex-head of Steinhoff:

She has the perfect setting for her bikini-clad, seemingly perfect life: a luxury apartment in Bantry Bay with a glass-walled pool right next to the ocean; a yacht sailing joyfully along in the Mediterranean on one of her polo holidays in Europe.

34-year-old Berdine Odendaal seems to spend her days on a horse, smoking and reading books while living the good life at the pristine Val de Vie Polo estate near Paarl, where she owns several properties, and a luxury apartment in Bantry Bay.

According to these “impeccable” sources, a lot of people knew about Jooste’s affair as Odendaal wasn’t exactly hiding her lifestyle:

Those who know Odendaal saw her drive a customised silver Bentley and white Ferrari and they spoke about her two Argentinian polo ponies.

She does not appear to work.

Assuming things have changed since 2017, she probably works now. I mean, she must do in this economy, especially considering how she’s had a substantial amount of assets attached by SARB, too.

She allegedly lived in the Bantry Bay apartment, which was linked to Jooste, sharing the same post office box as Jooste in Pretoria and Somerset West.

Interestingly, if you were to compare Berdine’s asset portfolio to Jooste’s wife, Ingrid, there seemed to have been a vast difference:

Odendaal, who has 10 properties registered in her name at Val de Vie, allegedly calls Bantry Bay home.

Coy’s Properties owns an apartment in Bantry Bay bought for R21.5-million in 2012. It has the same address Odendaal has listed as her residential address.

Jooste’s wife, Ingrid, on the other hand, only appears to own one townhouse in Stellenbosch, which was bought in May this year for R2.7-million.

Sheesh.

So Berdine doesn’t work, but she does have interests:

Odendaal is a fixture in polo circles and has competed in Argentina, while also attending social events linked to the sport in the rich man’s playground of St Tropez, France.

Jooste is a big player on the local horse racing scene. He has said that he owns between 200 and 250 racehorses and has a stake in a stud farm called Klawervlei near Bonnievale in the Western Cape.

Not Odendaal nor Jooste ever came out with the alleged affair, but the fact that her name keeps popping up with regard to his assets says a whole lot.

[source:news24]