By Eddie Botha

Global hotel group Sun International has rejected a call by King Mpondombini Sigcau that it should annually pay a percentage of its profits into a Royal amaMpondo trust.

The clash sets the scene for a showdown between the amaMpondo monarchy and the hotel group today over payments to the new royal trust fund.

The call by Sigcau is contained in a submission for Wednesday’s Eastern Cape Gambling and Betting Board hearing over the renewal of SI’s casino licence for the Wild Coast Sun.

The Daily Dispatch reported last August that Sigcau wanted the board to investigate the validity of a 30-year lease agreement signed between SI and the former Transkei homeland government.

In his latest submission, the king also calls for a large capital donation from SI which, along with the percentage of profits, would be invested strategically to support sustainable projects.

The clash between Sigcau and SI comes after he accused the group of excluding the royal family and the amaMpondo nation in its application for renewal of its licence.

Sigcau wants to establish the Royal amaMpondo trust to replace the Quakeni Trust, which was established in 1984 for the upliftment of the impoverished Mpondo nation.

He says an amount of R30000, which was supposed to have been paid by SI into that trust, never materialised.

The king submitted a May 2008 application form showing that SI applied to open a R4million investment account at Nedbank’s Margate branch in the name of Quakeni Trust.

“It was only after we started asking questions and, after the hearing first took place, that we got confirmation about the Nedbank application,” said Gordon Ball, a nephew of the king who acts as royal spokesperson.

Sigcau said the R30000 which was supposed to have been donated was meaningless in today’s monetary terms. Therefore, the the Quakeni Trust should be deregistered and the R4m paid as a further capital contribution to the new trust.

According to a notarial deed at the time, SI obtained the land in a R30000-per-year lease from the Transkei government and Mzamba Development for 50 years.

The deed was renewed in October 1992 with the option of another 50-year period.

In June 2004, SI’s board agreed that all shareholding from the amaMpondo nation should be channelled into a company called the Mbizana Community Company owned by a trust.

However, Sigcau said the Mbizana Development Trust had failed to meet its mandate.

Even the process of appointing trustees had been flawed.

Sigcau said there had been intense anger and resentment among the communities against SI and the Mbizana Development Trust during a public hearing held at the Mbizana Multipurpose Youth Centre on August 5 last year.

Reacting to Sigcau, SI general manager Alex McMath said the hotel group had shown that its contributions to community development were entirely in keeping with its commitments.

He asked the gambling board to reject Sigcau’s objection in its entirety.

Source: Daily Dispatch