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File Image: Members of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU)
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) in KwaZulu-Natal says it’s time government stopped rescuing private capital without any accountability.
This, after business rescue practitioners filed for the provisional liquidation of sugar giant, Tongaat Hulett which has put thousands of jobs at risk.
An accounting fraud scandal rocked the more than 130-year-old company in 2019. With a R12-billion debt and a failed rescue deal put forward by the Vision Consortium, the economic future of about five towns in KZN now looks bleak as a result.
KZN COSATU Secretary, Edwin Mkhize says the government has to impose certain conditions before entertaining bailouts.
“Monies must be injected to save jobs, to save the economy, but having said that what we are also emphasising a second point as COSATU, that our government must stop acting like a Father Christmas in bailing out these companies. We know that most of these companies have been investing monies. Some of them have been investing even in offshore but when they face challenges they don’t go and tap into those investments, they look up to government for bail out and we are saying that, that bail out must come with conditions.”
#COSATU in KwaZulu-Natal notes with deep concern the collapse of the business rescue process at Tongaat #Hulett,a development that poses a serious threat to jobs,the prov economy, local supply chains, and the livelihoods of workers and communities who depend on the sugar industry pic.twitter.com/VDUovNMAxh
— @COSATU Today (@_cosatu) February 18, 2026
