WIN!
Join our Facebook Group
to enter our monthly draw

SOCIAL EVENTS
Get seen in the hottest
spots in town. Click here
to see if you've been seen

Newsmaker An eye for business - Sol Kerzner

We sat at adjoining terrace tables. Sol toyed with his breakfast, gazing thoughtfully at human ants scurrying across acres of newly-laid lawns below. Opening day at Sun City.

A wide-eyed aide trotted up to say that staff were having a tough time coping with the unexpectedly large crowds descending on the huge palace-casino in the steamy valley, a couple of hours' drive from Johannesburg.

'What to do?' said the aide, nervously.

'Charge them R5 entry fee,' decreed Sol.

The aide looked startled but departed, and puffed back within minutes.

'They're paying!' he exclaimed.

And R5 was five rand in those days.

'I knew it,' quoth Sol. 'I knew this place should have been much bigger.'

Verily. The original Sun City complex, that vast temple of glitzy fantasy, simply could not accommodate the long-frustrated national appetite for entertainment. Sun City flourished from the moment it was born, with fantastic additional pleasure domes being erected in short order.

Sun City, built in what was then Bophuthatswana, a so-called 'independent homeland' in exchange for exclusive gambling rights, was Sol's big break and, eventually, his break with South Africa. Three years later he launched the totally extravagant Lost City. It was his last major investment in South Africa until his New York-based company, Kerzner International, created the luxury resort brand One&Only (in 2002) and announced it was building a 150-room hotel on the Victoria & Alfred Waterfront with local partner Matemeku Investments. And last month the Cape High Court gave the go-ahead for the development.

When the hapless aide reported a short while later that the multitudes were leaping into the Atlantic-sized swimming pool, Sol hardly blinked as he came back with the same response.

'Charge them R5 for a dip.'

And soon the astonished aide duly returned with the same stunning tale.

'They're paying!'

It was fascinating seeing Sol in action.

We had met before when, as a Sunday Times editorial page columnist, I was asked to profile the man. It was not an easy encounter. Like many ambitious, driven individuals, he was discreet about his ideas, attitudes and personal life, to the point of seeming impassive.

Now, seeing him hands-on, was another matter. He was The Boss. In control – and clearly capable of controlling a great deal more than Sun City – as he went on to prove. Solomon Kerzner was born in 1935 of Jewish immigrants from the Ukraine who opened a small kosher guest house in Durban.

It was a period he does not recall fondly.

He went to the University of the Witwatersrand and studied accountancy. His first hotel, built when he was just 29, was the Beverly Hills at Umhlanga Rocks, the first five-star hotel in South Africa. Five years later he went on to establish Southern Sun Hotels and completely changed the face of the hotel industry. Within a short while he was operating 31 hotels.

He was in the country again last month at the launch of the School of Tourism and Hospitality at the University of Johannesburg, housed appropriately enough in the Kerzner Building. (Kerzner and his company donated R20-million to the new school.)

He's just turned 70; his son Howard 'Butch' Kerzner is CEO of his company and his new wife, Heather (36), seems to have ensured that he remains fit and healthy following his heart attack scare 15 years ago. (He's stopped smoking and drinking but not partying.)

Flying back to Johannesburg the next day, across the dusty veld, the ant analogy came to mind again. From every direction, thousands of cars glittered in endless streams as they converged to celebrate Sol Kerzner's dreams.

And to invest a lot more than R5.

'Blow Away The Customer'

Kerzner International Holdings currently has properties across the globe, in the Bahamas, the Maldives, Mexico, Dubai, and Mauritius. The group controls two brands: the multi-thousand-room Atlantis Properties and the 100- to 300-room One&Only resorts. In terms of earnings contribution, One&Only is relatively small with six resorts in operation. Kerzner aims to have 20 in the portfolio within five years.