I assume you mean the tax on accumulated (assessed) losses. Normally this would be a good thing to take on as it can be offset against future profits thus reducing tax. However I am pretty sure you need to buy the actual company in order to get this and not just parts of it. The tax loss belong to the actual company and can't really be sold any more then you can sell a VAT number separately for example. In addition I believe SARS has some strict requirements regarding assessed tax losses and changes in the nature of business and in share holdings may affect this. Sorry can't help with specifics here.

So from your wording in your question, no I don't think you "have to" take on the tax losses, in fact it might be tricky to do so.

Did I understand your question correctly?