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Farmer looking at sugarcane plants
Sugarcane farmers in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) are calling on the government to rescue the country’s sugar giant, Tongaat Hulett.
Business rescue practitioners have filed for provisional liquidation of the entity.
With a R12-billion debt and a failed rescue deal put forward by the Vision Consortium, the livelihoods of one million people now hang by a thread.
This follows a multi-billion rand fraud scandal that made headlines in 2019.
The South African Farmers Development Association (SAFDA) says there’s still hope as the Industrial Development Corporation has reassured them that there’s still enough money to keep the company afloat.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IA6JXkBBcIU
The association’s chairperson, Siyabonga Madlala, “I wouldn’t want to call it a crisis. Obviously, the term provisional liquidation would scare anyone off. It suggests that perhaps it’s either a closed shop or what happens. From the engagements one has had at the highest echelons of government and also from the guys, the senior leaders of Vision Group, Mr Gumede, I can tell that for now please let’s calm down. I’ll really call for a calm across all sectors, be it employees, be it the growers, because I’ve gotten undertakings which are quite promising and reassuring that a government is intervening at the highest level, the minister himself said he’s actually put together a team.”
