Sugar and property giant Tongaat Hulett has gone to court to recover R450-million from four former top executives, who resigned in 2019 over massive balance sheet fraud of around R11-billion, which crippled the company.
The Tongaat group also wants former chief executive officer Peter Staude and three other former high-flyers to repay the company’s Zimbabwean subsidiaries more than $9-million that they lost due to overvalued sugar cane sales.
More than 8 000 Tongaat Hulett workers across its subsidiaries in three countries lost their jobs as a result of the scandal, sparked by the discovery that company bosses had misrepresented earnings for property and other deals.
