{"id":862381,"date":"2026-06-03T14:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-03T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=862381"},"modified":"2026-06-03T13:06:54","modified_gmt":"2026-06-03T11:06:54","slug":"end-of-a-r500-million-company-in-south-africa-risks-leaving-three-ghost-towns-behind","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/862381\/end-of-a-r500-million-company-in-south-africa-risks-leaving-three-ghost-towns-behind\/","title":{"rendered":"End of a R500 million company in South Africa risks leaving three ghost towns behind"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In less than two weeks, one of South Africa’s top refined sugar producers will have its liquidation hearing, which could place severe strain on the 18,000 cane growers reliant on Tongaat Hulett\u2019s three sugar mills.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tongaat Hulett is the largest producer of white refined sugar in South Africa, an important ingredient for soft drinks, snacks, and confectionery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The South African Canegrowers Association said that if the company is allowed to enter an unfunded liquidation and the uncertainty persists, commercial demand for white sugar will inevitably shift abroad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This could reduce local market demand for South African sugar and threaten the entire sugar value chain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe urgently call upon the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition (DTIC), business rescue practitioners Metis Strategic Advisors, and the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) to take all necessary measures to avert liquidation,\u201d said SA Canegrowers Chairman Higgins Mdluli.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf liquidation is unavoidable, we advocate for a funded process, known as a funded liquidation, in which funds are provided to allow the mills to continue operating.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said that SA Canegrowers has written to Minister Zuko Godlimpi, asking the DTIC to step in and do all that is necessary to ensure that Tongaat Hulett is saved. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mdluli emphasised that the potential collapse of Tongaat Hulett poses a significant threat to the entire sugar industry in KwaZulu-Natal and Mpumalanga.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over 18,000 growers rely directly on Tongaat Hulett\u2019s three mills to crush their cane. Of these growers, around 17,500 are small-scale growers dependent on sugar production. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGrowers need certainty that Tongaat\u2019s mills will remain open for the entire season. Transporting cane to mills further afield would lead to prohibitively high costs,\u201d said Mdluli.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said that without Tongaat\u2019s operations, these growers would lose essential income in areas with few other economic prospects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSaving Tongaat Hulett is not merely about preserving a business; it is about safeguarding the entire sugar industry and rural stability within South Africa,\u201d said Mdluli.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tongaat Hulett<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Tongaat Hulett’s three sugar mills in South Africa have a collective capacity to crush over 4.8 million tons of sugarcane annually. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company\u2019s central refinery in Durban produces refined sugar, with the primary product being the Huletts brand. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company also has an animal feed operation, Voermol <\/sup>Feeds, producing energy and supplementary feeds for the livestock farming community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tongaat Hulett operates three sugar mills along the north coast of KwaZulu-Natal: the Maidstone, Amatikulu, and Felixton mills.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tongaat Hulett\u2019s sugar mills are the economic lifeblood of Maidstone, Amatikulu, and Felixton in KwaZulu-Natal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The facilities sustain local supply chains, support thousands of small-scale farmers, and generate a massive share of the regional revenue, anchoring rural economies against unemployment and financial ruin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Maidstone sugar mill, established in 1903 in Tongaat, was the first sugar mill in KwaZulu-Natal. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Originally built on the banks of the Amanzimnyama River near Tongaat, it was later relocated to its current site on the north bank of the uThongathi River. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The mill has the capacity to crush approximately 440 tons of sugar cane per hour using two parallel extraction plants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Amatikulu Sugar Mill was opened in 1907, crushing around 7,000 tons of cane during its inaugural season. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the supply of cane increased, production rose to 11,000 tons of sugar in 1911, reaching its designed capacity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The success of the Amatikulu Sugar Mill was followed by the establishment of the Felixton Sugar Mill on the Mhlatuze River, which has a capacity of 35 tons of cane per hour, compared to Amatikulu’s 30 tons per hour. Today, the Amatikulu mill can crush about 385 tons of sugar cane per hour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the expansion of the sugar industry in the 1960s and 1970s and the anticipated increase in cane supplies into the 21st century, it was decided to close the Felixton and Empangeni mills, which were equipped with technology dating back approximately 70 years. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In their place, a new mill was built at Felixton, capable of crushing 600 tons of sugar cane per hour through two identical extraction lines.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of South Africa’s top refined sugar producers faces liquidation, threatening the future of three towns that rely on its mills. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":127,"featured_media":862397,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872],"tags":[20737,13343],"class_list":["post-862381","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-sa-canegrowers","tag-tongaat-hulett"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/862381","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/127"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=862381"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/862381\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":862412,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/862381\/revisions\/862412"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/862397"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=862381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=862381"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=862381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}