Members of the National African Federated Chamber of Commerce (Nafcoc) are set to benefit by millions of rands after the organisation sold its stake in Tsogo Sun, which owns Hemingways Casino in East London.

Nafcoc’s investment company, Nafhold, which was formed in 1994, said it had sold R700-million in shares back to Tsogo Investment Holding in order to allocate the dividends among long-standing members and constituencies.

Besides the Hemingways Casino in East London, Tsogo Sun owns 14 properties countrywide, including Montecasino in Fourways, Gold Reef City Casino in Johannesburg, the Garden Route Casino in Mossel Bay and Silverstar Casino in Krugersdorp.

Nafhold chief executive Michael Leaf was in Port Elizabeth yesterday to brief members on the process of applying for a portion of the available R250- million stake.

“We have already distributed R500-million to our various constituencies, namely our chambers countrywide, which will assist them in their operational running. The remaining R250-million we plan to distribute to our members countrywide.”

He said Nafhold would be collecting and finalising the forms of the members who qualified for the share distribution and members were encouraged to check whether they appeared on the list of members who qualified for share distribution.

About 80 Nafcoc members attended the Port Elizabeth briefing yesterday. Leaf said he had recently completed briefing members in Mthatha and after leaving Port Elizabeth would continue to East London, after which he would be finished with the Eastern Cape leg of the briefing sessions.

“Members are required to submit the necessary documentation we need to determine whether or not they qualify and how much they will then qualify for. There are some members who have played a major role in Nafcoc, while others just went along for the ride.”

Leaf said those members who stood to benefit handsomely included long-standing members who had served for years and also members who had served on various boards, either as presidents, secretaries or other office-bearers.

“We will also be looking at criteria such as who those members are who uplifted the organisation over the years and have worked to the benefit of the community they serve and work in. Especially those who selflessly contributed to enhance their communities.”

Leaf said once members received their allocated funds they could plough them back into their businesses or use them to uplift their communities.

Source: The Herald