KWAZULU-NATAL. – The criminal case against seven former Tongaat Hulett managers over alleged fraud of approximately R3.5 billion has been postponed to 18 March 2027.
National Prosecuting Authority spokesperson Natasha Ramkisson-Kara says the accused appeared in the Durban High Court. The state requested a postponement to apply for a new certificate for a racketeering charge against Gavin Dykes Kruger. A panel will consider the application from six to nine October 2026.
Peter Staude, Murray Hector Munro, Michael Edward Deighton, Rory Edward Wilkinson, Kamasagrie Singh, Samantha Shukla and Kruger are on trial on charges of fraud and contravention of the Financial Markets Act, the Companies Act and the Prevention of Organised Crime Act. Kruger is also on trial on a charge under the Auditing Professions Act. The state alleges the accused conspired between March 2015 and September 2018 to mislead Tongaat Hulett, employees, creditors and shareholders about income from land sales. It is alleged that sale agreements were backdated, resulting in incorrect profit statements and substantial bonuses for managers.
The seven appeared in the Durban specialised commercial crimes court in February 2022 and were each released on R30 000 bail. This case stems from a larger accounting scandal that emerged in 2019 following a PwC investigation. The accused remain on bail and have not yet been found guilty.
This article is an automatic English translation of a Nuusflits article originally published in Afrikaans. Read the Afrikaans original.
