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IOL News
2 days ago
- General
- IOL News
We were robbed of our dreams, says grieving wife
Arvin Ramluckan. Image: Supplied FOR a Tongaat woman the pain of losing her husband, Arvin Ramluckan, during the tornado remains while her two young daughters yearn for their father daily. Arvin, 37, a boilermaker, from Sandfields, died in hospital three days after the tornado hit, on June 6. He suffered extensive head injuries. At the time, a relative said Arvin's company transport had dropped him off near a shop on Sandfields Road. He had been walking to his home, a few metres away with a friend when they were caught in the tornado. The relative said Arvin and his friend held hands and started running to get to another friend's house to seek shelter. However, along the way, they were separated. He said Arvin was picked up by the tornado and flung against a brick wall, which then collapsed on him. Arvin was later taken to hospital by paramedics and placed on a ventilator. Speaking to the POST, Shanel Ramluckan, his wife, said they had hoped he would recover. 'I still remember seeing him lying in his hospital bed. While he was not able to speak or move, I had some hope that he would get through it. But he fought until he couldn't anymore. His tragic passing has been our greatest loss as he was the most loving husband and father. He was also our protector and now we are forced to live without him.' Ramluckan said the last conversation she had with Arvin was earlier that morning, when he video-called to speak to her and their daughters, now aged six and three. 'He left to work early in the morning, but would always call during his breaks. When he called that morning during his tea break, he only spoke to our youngest daughter as the eldest was still asleep. He said he would call later. I waited for his call at midday when he took his lunch break, but I think they had a meeting and he didn't have time. We never got to speak to him again.' Video Player is loading. Play Video Play Unmute Current Time 0:00 / Duration -:- Loaded : 0% Stream Type LIVE Seek to live, currently behind live LIVE Remaining Time - 0:00 This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Window Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Dropshadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps Reset restore all settings to the default values Done Close Modal Dialog End of dialog window. Advertisement Next Stay Close ✕ Ad loading Ramluckan said later that afternoon when she opened the door to let her dog out, she was met by the tornado. 'I didn't know there was a tornado approaching. The dog needed to go out, so when I opened the door I was hit by this strong wind. I could hear this loud noise; when I looked outside I saw the roof tiles flying off our relative's home next door. I managed to push the door closed and went to hide in our bedroom. 'After some time, I heard the relative calling out for me and went outside. She was badly injured. Moments after that, Arvin's friend came running into the yard, asking where Arvin was. I knew something was wrong. 'While we were sitting inside, my brother-in-law arrived and said Arvin had been injured, but he was okay and had been taken to hospital. We couldn't leave the area at the time as the roads were blocked. The next morning, my sister and I went to the hospital to see him. He was on a ventilator and not responsive,' she said. Ramluckan said she went to visit Arvin again on the Thursday. 'We were waiting to see him as we were told he was going to be moved from casualty to a ward. They weren't allowing the girls to go in but said they would be able to see him while he was being moved to the ward. 'The girls were hungry, so we took them to get something to eat at the shop. It wasn't even a few minutes that we were gone when my sister received a call that he had passed away. We rushed back to the hospital. I was in shock. My husband was gone. I still remember when I touched him, his body was still warm," she said. Ramluckan said her daughters still yearned for him. 'Almost every day my girls are in tears. At times, they are inconsolable that I have to call my sister to come home because I don't know how to comfort them. There are times when the youngest one will say she misses her dad and she wants to go by him. Her sister will tell her that 'daddy died, but he is watching over us'. It breaks my heart as they loved him so much. They were his whole world.' Ramluckan said she and Arvin had many future plans. 'He always used to say he wanted to have another child - he wanted a son. He also said he wanted to buy a car and renovate our home. But, we have been robbed of those dreams.' Arvin's one year memorial service was held at his home on Sunday. THE POST
The Herald
27-05-2025
- The Herald
Three dead and at least a dozen injured after bus plunges off bridge
Three people died and at least 12 were injured when a bus plunged off a bridge in Tongaat, north of Durban on Tuesday. Reaction Unit South Africa said emergency workers were at the scene of the crash. The bus was travelling on Gopalall Hurbans Road when it veered off the road, crashed through safety barriers and landed about 25m below the bridge. Two men and a woman were pronounced dead at the scene and at least 12 people sustained moderate to severe injuries. It cannot yet be confirmed if there are further entrapments under the bus. KZN transport and human settlements MEC Siboniso Duma said a Road Traffic Inspectorate team redirected traffic as emergency teams extracted a victim from the wreckage. Duma said most roads in the area were affected during the recovery process.
IOL News
13-05-2025
- Business
- IOL News
Doctor baffled by R2. 7 million electricity bill due to meter reading error
The eThekwini Municipality stated that the high electricity bill that a Reservoir Hills doctor received of R2.7 million was due to an incorrect meter reading that was submitted. Image: Supplied The eThekwini Municipality stated that the high electricity bill that a Reservoir Hills doctor received of R2.7 million in April 2025 was due to an incorrect meter reading that was submitted. Doctor Terence Govender said his average monthly bill was R8 500 and was left bemused by his latest bill. For March, Govender was billed R2.7 million in total. His bill for April totalled R91 000. This included water of R1 680, electricity of R55 000, cleansing and solid waste of R256, interest on arrears of R23 641, and VAT of R8 636. The total bill for March and April amounted to R2.8 million. eThekwini Municipality's Spokesperson, Gugu Sisilana, said they have noted the recent inquiry regarding an unusually high electricity bill reflected on a customer's account. The municipality stated that it wanted to provide clarity on the issue after investigating the matter. According to the municipality, the circumstances that led to this situation were: The cause of the high bill was an incorrect reading submitted to e-services by the customer. On March 25, 2025, the customer submitted a meter reading through the municipality's e-services platform. The reading submitted was 20364, which has fewer digits than the 6-digit reading, which ought to have been submitted. The municipality has also been advocating for customers to submit their readings on e-services as an alternative and appreciate the use of it. Subsequently, a routine meter reading was conducted on May 6, 2025, by municipal staff and captured the correct reading of 204020 units. However, this reading is currently pending final billing, and in the next billing, the adjustment of the R2m will be corrected. Sisilana said the municipality acknowledges the inconvenience this has caused and wishes to reassure both the customer and the public that this matter is receiving urgent attention. 'The customer will be contacted and will be educated on how to read their meter and submit on e-services. However, all necessary adjustments have been made already and will reflect actual consumption and correct the billing anomaly in the next bill of June 2025,' Sisilana said. She said that if residents have queries, the municipality's Revenue Management Unit (RMU) remains available for direct engagement. Krisendra Bisetty of Bisetty Attorneys said he is handling approximately 60 cases of high bills in eThekwini. 'I also have a client who owns a petrol station in Westville who has a R1.5m bill. I recently got a Sydenham woman's R1.5m water bill reversed in two days. She tried for two years without success,' Bisetty stated. In January 2025, a Tongaat homeowner, Arumoogum 'Reggie' Pillay, won his case at the Durban Regional Court after being billed approximately R322 900. Ish Prahladh, chairperson of the eThekwini Residents and Ratepayers Association (ERRA), said residents throughout the municipality were also experiencing similar challenges. Asad Gaffar, eThekwini Ratepayers Protest Movement (ERPM), said there is also no clear political will to change the management of the city and the department to address this serious crisis. 'The city has put its citizens into a predicament, and quite frankly, they simply just don't care. It is about time that the residents and ratepayers of eThekwini unite and stand united in a defiance campaign against this city,' Gaffar said. [email protected]
IOL News
11-05-2025
- Business
- IOL News
Tongaat Hulett's rescue or ruin? the damning quiet of a company in freefall
Tongaat Hulett refinery in KwaZulu-Natal. Image: Supplied It has now been more than two years since Tongaat Hulett, South Africa's 130-year-old sugar giant, entered business rescue. What was supposed to be a bold restructuring has instead devolved into a slow, painful erosion of shareholder rights, creditor value, and public confidence. As of today, 10 May 2025, the Vision consortium—heralded as the saviour of Tongaat—has failed to deliver even a cent of the promised funding. The April 30 deadline, the fifth to be missed, has passed with silence. No explanation. No accountability. No money. And yet, somehow, the show goes on. The Illusion of Progress On 16 April, a SENS announcement confirmed that the Zimbabwean competition commission had approved the sale of assets to Vision. According to the Business Rescue Practitioners (BRPs), this was the 'last required competition authority sign-off,' supposedly marking progress. But let's call this what it really is: window dressing. The BRPs and Vision are pushing forward with asset sales not as part of a thriving business rescue, but as a fallback mechanism—the 'Debt Set Off' clause—that bypasses shareholder approval, strips the company of assets, and readies it for liquidation. Let that sink in: the rescue of Tongaat is being implemented through liquidation-by-stealth. Legal storms brewing This brazen shift has not gone unchallenged. Two legal processes are now before the courts: RGS Group's Part B in the Durban High Court seeks to set aside the adopted plan, citing Vision's failure to meet its contractual obligation to acquire the full R8.5 billion in lender claims before any debt-for-equity conversion or asset sale could proceed. That was a clear condition precedent—not a suggestion—and its violation renders the plan unimplementable under both the Companies Act and established precedent. A Shareholder Interdict submitted in the Johannesburg High Court seeks a declaratory order that the plan unlawfully alters shareholder rights and, by failing to hold a shareholder vote as required under Section 152(3)(c), was never lawfully adopted. In effect, the sale of assets currently underway may well be void ab initio—illegal from the outset. Tongaat Hulett itself confirmed in its 4 April BR update that while Part A of RGS's challenge was dismissed on urgency grounds, Part B remains active, and shareholders have delivered their own affidavit, which should have been publicly posted on THL's website. If either legal action succeeds, Vision's grip on Tongaat could collapse overnight. The myth of shareholder consent Let us be clear: shareholders never voted for this outcome. Despite the BRPs' insistence that the business rescue plan did not "alter shareholder rights," the facts say otherwise. The plan proposed issuing 4.86 billion shares to Vision, diluting existing shareholders to just 2.7%. In real terms, the dilution destroyed shareholder value by over 97%—a fact confirmed in the shareholder court application. Under Section 152(3)(c) of the Companies Act, any such alteration requires shareholder approval. Yet the BRPs, led by Trevor Murgatroyd, Pieter van den Steen and Gerhard Albertyn, chose not to convene a vote. Worse still, when shareholders rejected the Section 41(3) resolution to approve the share issue in August 2024, the BRPs simply pivoted to the asset sale model without missing a beat. This isn't corporate rescue. It's corporate coup. Asset Stripping in Real Time SENS notices confirm that the BRPs have signed four major Business Sale Agreements: Tongaat's entire South African operations have been sold to Vision Sugar SA. Its Zimbabwean business , Triangle Sugar, is being handed over. Its Botswana stake has been transferred to ensure a controlling 50.1% interest. And in perhaps the most controversial deal, Mozambique's sugar operations —including Acucareira de Moçambique and Tongaat Hulett Açucar Lda—are being disposed of. Yet to date, shareholders have not seen the sale agreements. The applicants in the shareholder interdict explicitly state they are unaware whether these deals are subject to any suspensive conditions, or whether they've already been partially executed. So we must ask: who authorised the sale of billions in strategic assets without a lawfully adopted plan? And more urgently—what happens if the courts rule that the plan was invalid from the outset? The sound of silence Standard Bank, Vision's transaction advisor, guarantor and lead lender, remains disturbingly quiet. It was their 'letter of funds' in December 2023 that supposedly confirmed Vision's liquidity. Yet four deadlines have now passed. Did the funds ever exist? Were they warehoused elsewhere? Has Standard Bank misled the market? The same bank now stands to benefit from Vision's completion of the deal it enabled and guaranteed. If this isn't a case study in conflicted interests, then nothing is. What the law demands Sections 134, 140 and 152 of the Companies Act exist precisely to prevent this kind of abuse. They require: That all property disposals occur only under a lawfully adopted business rescue plan. That BRPs must implement only such a plan—not their own version. That shareholder rights, if altered, must be approved in a vote. All of these protections have been cast aside. In their place is a rescue plan implemented in name only—a plan that no longer exists in its originally approved form, but continues to be actioned as if it does. This Is No Longer Business Rescue Let's not sugarcoat it: Tongaat Hulett is being dismantled. And this is happening under the noses of regulators, bankers, employees, and the public. If the courts do not intervene—and fast—South Africa may soon witness one of its oldest listed companies being dismembered in broad daylight, shielded by legal technicalities and institutional apathy. The Verdict: The shareholders have spoken. The courts are being called. The facts are plain. Vision has not paid. The plan was not lawfully adopted. And Tongaat Hulett—along with its thousands of employees and legacy—deserves better than this. This isn't rescue. This is the slow-motion execution of a national asset. Roy Nzero is a small scale farmer in Jozini, KZN with a masters in agricultural science. ** The views expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of IOL or Independent Media. BUSINESS REPORT
IOL News
24-04-2025
- IOL News
Tongaat mother succumbs to injuries from tragic arson attack
A Tongaat mother, who was recently burnt on more than 80% of her body during an arson attack at her home in Belvedere, has died in hospital. Jennifer Naidoo, 58, succumbed to her injuries yesterday. Naidoo's mother-in-law, Maliga Naidoo, 75, died, and her son, Anthony, and husband, Marcel, were rescued from the burning house by neighbours and firefighters. KZN police said a case of arson, murder and two cases of attempted murder were being investigated by Tongaat police. Dolly Munien, the councillor for the area and Naidoo's friend, said she was devastated when she was told that Naidoo had died. 'We are hoping that one of the attempted murder charges changes to a charge of murder. We pray that police find the perpetrator of this horrific crime. It's sad that two people are now dead because of the fire, which was started by someone. Jennifer was a caring and loving mother, wife, and daughter-in-law. She took care of her ill mother-in-law, Maliga, and always ensured she had whatever she needed. "Her husband was also sick. We hoped for her to pull through, despite her serious injuries. We are heartbroken by her death." She said the Naidoo family were arranging Jennifer's funeral. THE POST
