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BL Premium reports that according to the SA Canegrowers Association, nearly 15,000 permanent and seasonal farm workers employed by sugar cane growers are at risk of losing their jobs after beleaguered sugar company Tongaat Hulett missed a payment due on Monday.
The estimate excludes contractors, haulier companies, input suppliers, mill workers and other service providers throughout the value chain. Tongaat Hulett, SA’s biggest sugar producer whose future is now in the hands of business rescue practitioners, missed a R400m payment for sugar cane deliveries. The nonpayment threatens the livelihoods of thousands of sugar cane growers and workers delivering cane to a number of Tongaat Hulett mills in KwaZulu-Natal, indicating the extent to which the liquidity crunch gripping the company is beginning to be felt along the value chain. SA Canegrowers, led by CEO Thomas Funke, is scheduled to meet Tongaat’s business rescue practitioners on Wednesday for an update on when the payments are due to resume. Apart from representing sugar farmers, SA Canegrowers is also a broader industry body, and the meeting will also address the longer-term effect of the situation, Funke said. Tongaat applied to enter business rescue after its creditors pulled the plug on funding for its SA operations, worsening its liquidity crisis. Tongaat has been limping along since 2019 when it disclosed corporate fraud, allegedly committed by the previous management led by former long-time CEO Peter Staude, who has denied any wrongdoing.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Andries Mahlangu at BusinessLive (subscriber access only)
- Lees ook, Duisende werkloos as Tongaat Hulett toemaak, by Maroela Media
Get other news reports at the SA Labour News home page