South Africa's troubled sugar producer Tongaat Hulett has narrowly avoided liquidation after the state-owned Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) agreed to extend an additional R200-million in emergency funding, bringing its total post-rescue commitment to R2.5-billion. The Durban High Court adjourned a winding-up application until 17 June, allowing the company — which has been in business rescue since October 2022 — to resume milling operations for the current cane season. The reprieve is critical for more than 18,000 sugarcane growers in KwaZulu-Natal (a coastal province on South Africa's eastern seaboard), the majority of them small-scale farmers with no alternative mills to process their crop, whose livelihoods and surrounding rural communities depend entirely on Tongaat's operations.