The South African Canegrowers Association, which represents about 23 000 farmers supplying Tongaat Hullet, are seeking to intervene in an urgent application by the company\u2019s business rescue practitioners (BRPs) to place the sugar giant into provisional liquidation.<\/p>\n
The urgent application follows the breakdown of a business rescue plan involving the Vision Group. This comes amid allegations that Vision had deliberately collapsed the deal by making outrageous demands.<\/p>\n
Some growers have already filed papers seeking to intervene in the liquidation proceedings and are calling for a full investigation into what transpired.<\/p>\n
The BRPs application was heard virtually in the Durban High Court by Judge Sanele Hltshwayo on Friday.<\/p>\n
Read:
Tongaat Hulett provisional liquidation: IDC non-committal about additional support
Tongaat crisis threatens systemic failure in SA\u2019s sugar industry
Sour end to SA sugar icon<\/p>\n
Given the opposition from several parties \u2013 including trade, industry and competition minister Parks Tau and the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC), which provided post-commencement finance to Tongaat \u2013 and the number of parties intending to intervene, the judge adjourned the matter. He set tight deadlines for further affidavits.<\/p>\n
Judge Hltshwayo said the Judge President was aware of the urgency and was expected to allocate hearing dates in mid-March.<\/p>\n
Advocate Ruan van Rooyen, appearing for the canegrowers\u2019 association, placed on record that it would formally apply to intervene. The association has previously warned that liquidation poses a \u201cprofound risk\u201d that threatens the livelihoods of thousands of small- and large-scale growers.<\/p>\n
In a separate application to intervene, Abrina, which owns two sugar farms contracted to Tongaat, has proposed that all contracted growers \u201ccaucus\u201d to explore taking over the company\u2019s milling and refinery operations on an interim basis to prevent collapse.<\/p>\n
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Abrina has also called for an investigation into the bona fides of the winding up application, which it says \u201cappears to be contrived\u201d.<\/p>\n
Its owner, Kadarnath Maharaj, states in his affidavit that it was \u201calmost inconceivable to the public at large that an entity like Tongaat be wound up to the detriment of the livelihoods and income relied upon by about 250 000 people\u201d.<\/p>\n
He said the BRP\u2019s conduct should be investigated, given that Tongaat had received more than R2.5 billion in post-commencement funding and that the practitioners could have sought an extension of the business rescue process from the court.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis point, amongst others, screams out that the winding up application is contrived and designed to exert undue pressure or bully the IDC into submission to lend Vision (further) money,\u201d Maharaj said.<\/p>\n
During the business rescue, Vision acquired the lender group\u2019s R11.7-billion debt, becoming the controlling creditor. Maharaj contends that Vision had thereby \u201cimposed its own business rescue plan\u201d on the creditors.<\/p>\n
Read: Tongaat on brink of collapse, again<\/p>\n
According to the BRPs, Vision called in this loan after negotiations with the IDC for an additional R600-million to prop up the company failed, with the IDC insisting that Vision contribute at least half the amount itself.<\/p>\n
Maharaj also said that when the rescue plan was approved in January 2024, largely through the \u201cmight\u201d of Visions\u2019 voting rights, Vision did not lawfully \u201cstand in the shoes of the banks\u201d because the transfer of the banks\u2019 claims was only finalised in May 2025.<\/p>\n
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\u201cIt is respectfully submitted that if and when this court is fully apprised of the situation, it will become apparent that Tongaat was rendered completely vulnerable for corporate vultures to simply benefit from the century-old company,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Creditor RGS Group Holdings, which has repeatedly challenged the Vision plan in court, mostly unsuccessfully, is also opposing the liquidation. It has filed a counter application seeking dismissal of the liquidation application and an order setting aside the Vision plan. If successful, the business rescue process would continue and RGS would propose a new rescue plan.<\/p>\n
RGS chair Momade Aquil Rajahussen said in his affidavit that Vision\u2019s plan was \u201cdoomed to fail\u201d because it lacked the necessary funding and because \u201cmaterial facts\u201d had been withheld from affected parties.<\/p>\n
\u201cVision has, to date, not injected any capital into Tongaat, which has stayed afloat solely thanks to the IDC,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He said Vision had funded the purchase of the lender group\u2019s claims with borrowed money, not its own capital, and later sought to enforce that claim, conduct he called \u201cpredatory behaviour\u201d.<\/p>\n
Vision has not yet filed papers. But in a press statement, it pledged to \u201csalvage the business\u201d. In meetings with unions, it said it was in discussions with the IDC.<\/p>\n
Vision has said it invested billions of rand to acquire the lender group\u2019s claims, supported management in improving performance at plants, sought new clients, assisted with recruiting of key leadership \u2013 sometimes at its own cost \u2013 and engaged government, including the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition, on industry reforms aimed at saving jobs and stabilising the sugar sector.<\/p>\n
\u00a9 2026 GroundUp. This article was first published here.<\/p>\n
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