AMABHUNGANE: PetroSA was owed R227m, but may end up losing R1.4bn instead

{JSON.stringify(article.attachments[0], null, 2)} --> State-owned fuel company PetroSA faces liquidation after entering into a ludicrous settlement with an obscure but ambitious fuel trader, Nako Energy.

When state-owned fuel company PetroSA walked into the boardroom at its Parow head office, it was owed R227-million. By the time it walked out, it had agreed to a deal so toxic that it now faces the possibility of losing R1.4-billion instead – and potentially liquidation.

The meeting had been called in May 2025 to settle long-outstanding debts between PetroSA and a junior fuel trader, Nako Energy.

PetroSA owed Nako R605-million for a cargo of petrol it bought in June 2024, but had struggled to sell because it was tainted with a problematic chemical additive. Nako, in turn, owed PetroSA R832-million for a cargo of diesel it had bought and never paid for.

[Read AmaBhungane’s Dirty Fuels investigation, which covers the diesel deal in part 1 and the unleaded petrol deal in part 2 .]

PetroSA should have had a R227-million upper hand, while Nako – whose claim to fame was largely its partnership with PetroSA – should have been grovelling.

Instead, Nako persuaded PetroSA to accept a new deal: PetroSA would buy another 11 cargoes of unleaded petrol from Nako and receive a discount of 45c per litre. Once PetroSA had sold 505 million litres of fuel, it would be R227-million richer, and Nako’s debt would – hey presto – be eliminated.

When PetroSA’s then interim CEO Sesakho Magadla appeared in Parliament last year, she said: “[W]e are both owed by Nako and we also owe Nako, and in us trying to find a solution – that balances what we need to do and also make sure that PetroSA does not suffer losses – both parties have agreed in terms of the acknowledgement of debt, in terms of the commercial settlement and also finalising the repayment plan.”

Yet the deal is far worse than it appears because once Nako had PetroSA’s signature on an acknowledgement of debt, it ceded the document to its lenders who were demanding to be paid for the same shipment of fuel.

This is a classic bait-and-switch: PetroSA thought it was negotiating with a trusted partner and that the two opposing debts would cancel each other out. Instead, its half of the debt was ceded to Nako’s creditors, whose lawyers soon came calling.

Now – with a letter of demand in one hand and a toxic petrol deal in the other – PetroSA is facing liquidation. A memo, apparently written by acting CEO Nombulelo Tyandela and sent to PetroSA staff over the weekend, said that Nako had approached the Western Cape Division of the High Court on Friday, 11 September, for “an order placing PetroSA under provisional liquidation”.

“PetroSA is considering the application and is obtaining the necessary legal advice,” a spokesperson confirmed on Wednesday.