Despite having had its advances to acquire Tongaat Hulett stalled or outright rejected multiple times since November 2023, RGS Group Holdings (RGS), based in Mozambique, remains determined to eventually have the sugarcane milling giant join its stable of already diverse operations.
By Lloyd Phillips, senior journalist at African Farming and Landbouweekblad
There has reportedly been significant legal opposition in the Durban High Court of KwaZulu-Natal to Tongaat Hulett’s business rescue practitioners’ application to have the company placed into provisional liquidation.
The court has received notices of opposition, of intention to oppose, counter applications and applications to intervene from the likes of RGS itself, Minister of Trade, Industry and Competition (DTIC) Parks Tau, the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC), individual shareholders of Tongaat Hulett and its subsidiaries, and a creditor of and sugarcane supplier to the sugar miller.
The South African Canegrowers Association, the KwaZulu-Natal chapter of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) and, reportedly according to Tau, “other organs of state”, will apparently also step into the legal fray at some stage.
The Durban High Court has ordered all answering papers and counter applications to be filed by 17:00 on Wednesday, 4 March 2026.
In its counter application, reportedly already submitted to the court, RGS seeks to have the application for Tongaat Hulett’s provisional liquidation dismissed, to have the Vision Consortium’s recently lapsed business rescue plan for Tongaat Hulett wholly set aside, and for a new business rescue process for Tongaat Hulett to be allowed.
RGS is owned by the Gulamo family of Mozambique. Since the early 1990s, RGS has grown into a multinational conglomerate with core businesses in agriculture, sugar, edible oils, trade, distribution, beverages, milling, and more. Products are marketed domestically, regionally and globally.
Also read: ‘Tongaat Hulett liquidation must be last resort’ – government
RGS Withdraws Because of Alleged Bias
In November 2023, RGS and the Vision Consortium (Vision) both submitted business rescue plans for Tongaat Hulett. Vision is a coalition of diverse regional and international companies and investors. They include the South African billionaire Robert Gumede and Zimbabwean businessman Rutenhuro Moyo.
However, on 9 January 2024, one day before Tongaat Hulett’s creditors were due to vote on their preferred business rescue plan, RGS withdrew its plan on the grounds that the business rescue process was allegedly rigged in favour of Vision’s rival plan. Tongaat Hulett’s creditors were left with only the option of voting for or against the Vision plan, and the majority voted for it.
The subsequent implementation of Vision’s business rescue plan has been beset by multiple hurdles and conflicts. It was supposed to have been concluded during 2025. However, it eventually lapsed unfinished on 7 February 2026 and soon thereafter Tongaat Hulett’s business rescue practitioners announced their intention to apply for provisional liquidation.
Also watch: Sugar industry in crisis – KZN’s premier pushing to save Tongaat Hulett
This announcement sent a shockwave throughout South Africa’s already financially struggling primary sugarcane value chain. The livelihoods of Tongaat Hulett’s thousands of employees and up to 15 000 sugarcane growers that supply their harvests to the company’s three sugar mills are in direct peril. The company is such a huge player in the country that its potential closure might possibly severely cripple, or possibly even sink, South Africa’s entire primary sugarcane value chain.
In its *letter to the IDC and DTIC dated 17 February 2026, RGS again highlighted its grievances against Tongaat Hulett’s business rescue practitioners and Vision. RGS also reaffirmed its intention and commitment to acquiring Tongaat Hulett if permitted the opportunity to do so.
‘No Case for Provisional Liquidation’
“RGS will contend [in its counter application to the Durban High Court] that the facts set out in the founding affidavit to the liquidation application do not make out a case for Tongaat Hulett Limited to be placed under provisional liquidation at this stage but instead demonstrate the undeniable failure and unlawfulness of the Vision Plan.
“In the meantime, RGS would be willing to negotiate, amongst other possible solutions, the provision of a bank guarantee in favour of the IDC to the quantum required to increase the IDC’s security and ensure the continued provision of post-commencement funding, whilst RGS and Afreximbank conduct a thorough due diligence process.”
Afreximbank is based in Cairo, Egypt. RGS has submitted a term sheet from Afreximbank for a US$280 million (approximately R4.6 billion) capital facility specifically earmarked to fund a new business rescue plan for Tongaat Hulett that RGS intends to table if the Durban High Court dismisses the current application to have Tongaat Hulett liquidated.
RGS proposes that while Afreximbank completes its final due diligence, RGS will provide a bank guarantee to the IDC to secure the immediate R600 million in working capital that Tongaat Hulett needs to stay operational.
* Source: amaBhungane Centre for Investigative Journalism
Also read: Steenhuisen ‘seriously concerned’ about provisional liquidation application for Tongaat Hulett
