- ARTICLE 2015 F - E M<_• WI'I'H 1~~HE MIDAS TOUCH

Sol Kerzner, the founding chairman of the Kerzner International group of luxury resorts, is a visionary with an eye for detail and . an imagination that turns everything he touches to gold. IJ Interview by Barbaro Lenhard and Sam Woulidge . Written by Sam Woulidge

Across fOL11 continents, Sol Kerzner's rays This is a mall who, some :)0 years ago, dreamt encompass a Byzantine maze of private and of building a hotel unlike anything yet seen public companies, stock excha isied in , a premier destination resort assets, shareholclings and directorships bv true global standards. This, despite the fact If you want to know more about the so-called that his only experience of hospitality had Sun King's business acumen, his phenomenal been the ad hoc rnanaging of a small hotel financial successes or commercial deal owned by his parents in what was then the you don't need to look tar. A quick search province of Natal, on South Africa's tropical on the internet delivers rnore on the world• eastern coast. .rzncr was a famous South African leisure and garnbling Even though I'll" was made a junior partner in a tvcoon than you could ever read. a highly reqarded Johannesburq accounting iefore leaving for If you're lookinq for anecdotes, mention firm at Just 25, Kerzner knew he would not :' opeue-d hi, first Kerzner's name at any upper-crust South pursue a career in number crunching Instead, U mhla Ilga r~()cks. African dinner partv and someone (or aged 21, he acquired the lease to another Indeed everyone) will have an I-kno\/I-this• hotel in the back streets of the city of . for-a-fact story about his larger than life 'Within a few weeks l'd opened a nightclub personality, his breathtakiriq excesses, his It became the hotspot of Durban; he recalls. unbelievable darinq The young man who qrew up on the rough So what cia you ask when given the streets of Troyeville in Johannesburg, the opportunity to interview the great man son of Russian-Jewish immigrants and the himself, when sitting at the oversized youngest of four children, had his sights dining-loom table in his Hout Bay estate, firmly set on creating the first five-star hotel surrounded by rnagnificent views and even in the country. more magnificent works of art? You don't As its location, he chose Umhlanga Rocks, Instead, you listen. And you count yourself which was then an underdeveloped site north lucky that the man who single-handedly of Durban, an area with little apparent tourist redefined the scope and scale of luxury world appeal. With a willing investor, a lot of courage travel is in a reflective mood. and a little luck (the casino magnate believes school and put me into a college where I had Years later, Sol Kerzner would be approached to work hard. The headmaster there was first by to playa part in unifying class and he gave me a bit of confidence. the country once more. 'Our history is very HE'S But, still, I had no idea what I wanted to do simple. Everybody was aware that through after school, so I thought I'd go to university -- I was very close to Lucas Mangope and do accountancy because then I could [leader of the then Bophuthatswana] and. work during the day and go to lectures in I also happened to be very friendly with the evening. So, I became an article clerk and Mangosuthu Buthelezi, head of the Inkatha studied at night. And I kept on boxing: Freedom Party [formerly one of South Accountancy and boxing have both stood Africa's prominent political parties] with its Kerzner in good stead. Attention to detail, predominantly Zulu following. respect for money and the fearlessness of a 'Mandela wanted to unite everyone and so fighter are important qualities to have when he reached out to me to talk to the people you put yourself at the forefront of one of that I knew to see if I could help get everyone the most ruthless industries there is - the comfortable with the idea of a united business of global entertainment. And while South Africa. That was weeks after he was the hotels and resorts will continue to flourish released. Our first meeting was at my home and luxury will continue to be redefined, it is in Johannesburg and he came to have dinner. that sometimes luck serves just as well as strip of land within the borders of the revealing that the one story Kerzner chooses That's how we became great friends: determination), Kerzner started building apartheid-era 'independent homeland' of to tell is wholly unrelated to the world of But my favourite Sol story is the one he tells of what would eventually become the luxurious Bophuthatswana into a flamboyant fantasy comfortable beds and good meals. It involves the time he flew international golfing legend e). His resorts Beverly Hills Hotel. world called Sun City, and then open the a boxing match, a prime minister and a blow Gary Player down to Sun City to show him 1 closely 'I remember one [newspaper] article calling magnificently opulent Palace of the Lost City to the established regime. .. where he wanted to build a golf course. 'I said h the Miss World me "a mad kid", saying the project was too on the same site a few years later. In 1979, the World Boxing Association's to him, "Okay Gary; we're building the hotel Lt. He's pictured expensive, the hotel too luxurious for South He would resurrect the mythical city of heavyweight title fight took place in South here, and we are going to build the lake in the th Africa Tatum Africa: he says. 'But I was confident. I'd Atlantis in The Bahamas, where the design Africa between local hero Gerrie Coetzee and valley and then we're going to build the golf Miss World Ksenia never been abroad before, I'd never actually of his Paradise Island resort incorporates the African-American 'Big' at Loftus course all around here." He was excited and he in experienced overseas hotels - I'd just seen world's largest open-air marine habitat, and Versfeld, a rugby stadium in the country's (right). brochures - but, by the time we put the he'd follow this up with the award-winning executive capital, , and a temple to -r- bulldozers in the ground, I knew that I wanted OneEtOnly Resorts in The Bahamas, Mexico, the favourite sport of Afrikaner nationalists. do, something a lot better than what I'd Mauritius, The Maldives, South Africa and It was a fight orchestrated by Sol Kerzner; Olle&On/J' experienced in South Africa. Dubai, where everyone who Is anyone aspires a fight that he, unlike Gerrie Coetzee, won. 'I'd seen pictures of Miami Beach and I to spend a night. 'It was the biggest live audience of all time. realised that I needed to go for myself. So It's a far cry from the staid world of chartered And it was of historical significance because ( I got on a plane and flew there, and, in one accounting, not to mention the streets of the concession the apartheid government day, I saw the whole of Miami. I was up until Troyeville. When asked what drove him to of Prime Minister PW Botha had to make in 2am driving in a cab to every hotel and, by succeed, Kerzner's answer is poignant and order to secure the fight in South Africa was morning, I said, "Well, I've seen it all, so I'm honest. 'Growing up in a rough neighbourhood to open the stadium to all South Africans, to off to the pool':' instils in you an energy to succeed. I think all races, forever: And on the fateful day that president John F that's partially it. But I also think part of it is 'Not just for the day?' I ask, incredulous of the Kennedy was assassinated, Kerzner flew back luck of the draw. enormity of these negotiations; negotiations to South Africa. He was 28 years old, he'd 'I wasn't really a very good student - I was far which would mean removing certain I'd riever been abroad before, spent a grand total of two days iR America, more interested in boxing, a sport I took up apartheid laws forever. 'No: Kerzner replies, I'd never actually experienced and he knew he was going to build the most to protect myself from the kids who picked grinning wickedly. 'For always. And for all overseas hotels - I'd just seen luxurious hotel South Africa had ever seen. on me. I would tell my family (and it used to stadiums. You, see, they wanted it that badly. brochures - but, by the time He would go on to carve out a career for make my dad mad) that I was going to be a It was so hard for the government to accept we put the bulldozers in the himself as South Africa's most successful (and motorcar mechanic. As it turns out, I would these demands that the terms were only und, I knew that I wanted do wealthiest) hotelier. have been a terrible mechanic because I'm finalised a few weeks before the fight. But mething a lot better than what The Beverly Hills was followed by the Elangeni not mechanically inclined at all. But I never from that day, 20 , the stadiums !d experienced in South Africa. Hotel overlooking Durban's beachfront, and thought that university was something I could of South Africa were opened to everyone. the Beacon Isle Hotel in Plettenberg Bay on make a go of, never mind achieve anything Forever. And so I sat next to PW Botha and his South Africa's magnificent Garden Route. else. In the last two years of school, my father, wife Elize and we watched the match, along Soon after, Kerzner would turn a desolate who was a smart man, took me out of high with 82 000 fellow South Africans: " -4--