Durban — The government has been urged assist growers as Tongaat Hulett business rescue gets under way. This is according to SA Canegrowers chairperson Andrew Russell who made the impassioned appeal to the national government to help with funding as cane growers face a financial crisis. This is because they never received their payments in excess of R400 million for the cane delivered in September.
Russell said the organisation has made an appeal to the Ministers of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development, Thoko Didiza, the Minister of Trade, Industry and Competition, Ebrahim Patel, and President Cyril Ramaphosa, among others, for financial support.
Government intervention will ensure that the 4 300 growers and 14 642 farm workers affected by Tongaat Hulett’s business rescue will receive the money they need to support their families.
The most affected growers are supplying sugar cane to the Felixton, Amatikulu, and Maidstone mills of KwaZulu-Natal.
The South African Canegrowers organisation was engaged in this engagement with the business rescue practitioners appointed in the Tongaat Hulett Limited (THL) matter on Wednesday.
Russell said of the meeting: “Based on this engagement, SA Canegrowers is optimistic that the business rescue practitioners understand the urgency of addressing the non-payment of growers, and the importance of restoring the operation of Tongaat Hulett mills as soon as possible.
“(This is) in order to ensure the survival of the cane-growing industry in the North Coast region of KZN.
“The engagement, though positive, also highlighted the magnitude of the task at hand, and the necessity of government intervention to ensure that the Tongaat Hulett’s supplying growers can survive while the business rescue process continues.”
Russell added that at the end of November, a further R345m would become due for over 570 000 tons of cane delivered in October.
“Of the 4 300 growers affected by the non-payment, more than 4 000 are small-scale growers, making them particularly vulnerable to financial shocks.
“Moreover, the estimated 14 642 jobs affected don’t include the contractors, haulier companies, input suppliers, mill workers and other service providers throughout the value chain whose payment is also affected by the current crisis” Russell said.
He added say that given the magnitude of the challenge at hand, SA Canegrowers did not believe that the industry could withstand the present peril without financial assistance from the government.
“This is why we have requested urgent meetings with the president, Minister Patel, and Minister Didiza to discuss what funding government can make available, in order to ensure that the work done, under the auspices of the sugar cane value chain masterplan… to position the sugar industry for the future, hasn’t been in vain.
“SA Canegrowers remains committed to working with all industry stakeholders to ensure that we can protect all one million livelihoods that depend on the industry,” he ended.
On the request for government funding, Russell said: “SA Canegrowers has had some response to our request for meetings and are currently engaging with the relevant departments to schedule these engagements as soon as possible.”
Daily News