TONGAAT Hulett has welcomed the appearance in court of six former company executives, in relation to fraud charges, describing it as another step towards accountability for “historic mismanagement” at the Durban-based sugar giant.

Peter Staude, Murray Munro, Michael Deighton, Rory Wilkinson, Kamlasagrie Singh and Samantha Shukla appeared in the Durban commercial crime court on Thursday 10 February. They were joined by Gavin Kruger, a former Deloitte partner on the Tongaat Hulett audit. All seven were granted bail.

Late in 2019, Tongaat laid criminal charges against former executives identified for their role in “undesirable” accounting practices as a result of the PwC forensic investigations.

“The charges stem from alleged fraudulent activity which took place between March 2015 and September 2018, which saw the suspects cooperate to backdate land sale agreements. The backdated sale agreements had a significant impact on the Company’s financial results,” the company said in a statement.

The PwC forensic investigations identified that certain senior executives initiated or participated in undesirable accounting practices which resulted in the company’s profits being overstated over a number of years.

“This led to the loss of value to our shareholders and many of our other stakeholders.”

Civil proceedings brought by the company against four former executives during 2020 are also underway.

Tongaat Hulett Company Secretary, Johann van Rooyen said the company, “welcomes this development in the legal process and it will continue to cooperate with law enforcement authorities whenever required to ensure that those responsible for the historic mismanagement of Tongaat Hulett are held accountable”.

The case was postponed to April 11, when it is expected to resume in the high court.