'Our aim has always been to save Tongaat Hulett' - Vision group responds to amaBhungane debt-bomb claims

The imminent collapse of Tongaat Hulett Limited (THL) has led the Department of Trade and Industry to reiterate its commitment to efforts aimed at protecting the sugar sector and the jobs it sustains.

A High Court hearing is scheduled for Friday, 27 February, for business rescue practitioners to ask for the company to be placed under provisional liquidation.

The sugar giant plays a huge role in sustaining the rural economy in northern KwaZulu-Natal.

At the centre of the latest crisis is R11.7 billion in debt claims now held by the Vision consortium, led by Zimbabwean businessman Robert Gumede.

The amaBhungane Centre for Investigative Journalism charges that Sugar Vision, which has effective control over Tongaat, "has lit the fuse of a debt-bomb that threatens to blow up the company and destabilise KwaZulu-Natal".

It was Vision that issued a formal demand to THL on 8 February for immediate repayment of the debt, triggering the liquidation application lodged four days later, said amaBhungane's Sam Sole.

Stephen Grootes follows up on his conversation with Sole, interviewing Rute Moyo, member of the Vision group.

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Their view is that it is a simplification to use the term "debt-bomb" Moyo tells Grootes.

He maintains that Vision's position has always been to save Tongaat Hulett.

"Vision's positioning and entry into this fray has always been to save the jobs... the communities in which it operates, the growers in the supply chain that supply Tongaat. That hasn't changed throughout the business rescue process and continues to be so even in the current twilight zone."

"If it gets into liquidation, which we hope it doesn't, the position of Vision continues that its intention is to save Tongaat, and to acquire control of the assets and to run them."

Moyo says his group has already committed roughly R4 billion to the project.

"We have put in upsides of about R2 billion of our own money and then we borrowed another R1,8-1.9 billion on which we are paying interest and servicing as we speak."

He highlights that it is Vision that is taking the risk here, with Tongaat's status as a going concern of primary importance to them.

"It is us who have actually taken direct financial risk into these assets more than anyone else who has probably been benefiting from the process - it is simply not us (benefiting)."

To hear more from the Vision group's Rute Moyo, listen to the interview audio at the top of the article