Wild Coast Sun Faces Royal Wrath

August 13 - When gambling magnate, Sol Kerzner, signed a 100 occupancy lease with the former Transkei homeland minister, George Matanzima in the 1980's, he certainly landed his Sun International company a bargain. The lease, which cost the company R2 million, ensured that Sun International retained exclusive gambling rights in the Transkei, and paid around R2500 per month to lease 640 hectares of some of the most pristine coastline in the world.

Today, the terms of that lease are a cause of conflict between Sun International, the South African government and Pondoland King Justice Mpondombini Sicgau. The latter, represented by a brilliant legal team, is challenging the rights of Sun International to renew the Wild Coast Sun's gambling license - which expires this month - for another ten years.

At the center of the conflict is the claim that Sun International did not carry out its promise under the terms of the lease to uplift impoverished areas around the resort. To make way for the building of the Wild Coast Sun, over 100 families from the Umgungundlovu community were forcibly removed and have not been compensated 20 years after the event.

"Local unemployment is as high as 77 percent, 99 percent of housing is informal, with only 9 percent having potable water," said Steven Rorke, acting as advocate for King Sicgau.

These statistics are in glaring contrast to the financial figures racked up by the Wild Coast Sun. The resort generates annual revenue of over R270 million and an operating profit nearing R40 million.

King Sicgau, according to his lawyers, is concerned that Sun International is simply ignoring its responsibility to black economic empowerment, and is largely unimpressed with the track record of the group set up by Sun International, the Mbizana Development Trust, to advance social improvement in the region.

Suggestions have been made that Sun International's gambling license should not be renewed until reasonable compensation had been paid to the Umgungundlovu community.

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