Pratish Sharma’s family has been living and farming at Isinembe near Tongaat, north of Durban, since 1883, when his ancestor, Gangaparsad Sharma, settled in the area.
Today, Sharma and his father, Roy, farm sugar cane on about 320 hectares of land, employing 65 workers and supplying sugar giant Tongaat Hulett with about 16 000 tonnes of cane for refining every year.
The Sharmas are among the more than 12 300 sugar cane farmers who are contracted to the property development and sugar giant and who may lose everything if Tongaat Hulett, currently under business rescue, collapses.
The company went into freefall after balance sheet fraud, allegedly carried out by former chief executive Peter Straude and other managers, was discovered, forcing it to sell off properties and farms to reduce its debt.
Late last month it defaulted on payments to creditors and was placed under business rescue after banking institutions rejected the business recovery plan presented by its new leadership, which took over in 2019.
Advertising
Your M&G
Did you enjoy this feature? The Mail & Guardian has a proud 35 year history of producing South Africa’s best-informed, independent journalism. Since the very beginning, we have relied on the support of paying subscribers to fund our writers.
Doing so guarantees our editorial independence and enables us to survive no matter what the bad actors, the economy or Covid-19 throws at us. Want to support the Mail & Guardian? You can get unlimited access to all of stories, plus our weekly crossword and subscriber events from just R99 a month.
English
Arabic
Chinese (Simplified)
Dutch
French
German
Italian
Portuguese
Russian
Spanish