Question: The 8 4 - year - old Sol Kerzner died in Cape Town on Saturday, after a sometimes - controversial career developing some of the
The yearold Sol Kerzner died in Cape Town on Saturday, after a sometimescontroversial career developing some of the worlds most spectacular resorts.
The youngest of four children, he was born in Doornfontein, Johannesburg to Lithuanianborn Jewish immigrants. His parents ran a store selling fruit and vegetables. A diminutive child, Kerzner was bullied at school and took up boxing as a form of defence. He would later become a welterweight champion.
He told the Financial Times that he considered his sharp left hook one of his three best features along with humility and creativity After he matriculated from Damelin College, he wanted to work on cars, but his father, Morris, encouraged him to go to university. He graduated with a BCom Honours in accounting from the University of the Witwatersrand, and qualified as a chartered accountant while working at an accounting practice. In his father bought the Minora, a kosher hotel in Durban. Kerzner moved down to help, and a
couple of years later, they bought another Durban hotel, the Palace. In he purchased his own hotel, the Astra, in Durban and by the age of he opened the Beverly Hills, which became the country's first fivestar hotel. Its development was reportedly financed by clients and colleagues from the accountancy practice where he worked. According to one story, he used photos cut from an American holiday brochure to sell the venture to them. Next, he launched the R million Elangeni Hotel in Durban and, in he was approached by the then South African Breweries SAB to establish a chain of hotels. Within five years the Southern Sun group had more than hotels, and by the mids he launched Le Saint Gran hotel in Mauritius. In Kerzner developed Sun City for R million in the homeland of Bophuthatswana. It had two casinos, a conference centre and an hole golf course. While it was initially developed as part of the Southern Sun group, Kerzner would retain the Sun City assets when he launched a competitor, Sun International, in
In the next decade, he added four new hotels at Sun City, a manmade lake and the SuperBowl arena in Frank Sinatra who described Kerzner as the best saloonkeeper in the world was paid $ million to open the SuperBowl, which would later also host Elton John, Cher, Cliff Richard, and Rod Stewart. But this also caused Sun City to become an infamous byword for apartheid across the world. In the music album Sun City was released, and featured antiapartheid songs performed by Bono, Ringo Starr, Miles Davis, Peter Gabriel and Bruce Springsteen.
One of the songs, also called Sun City featured lyrics including Relocation to phony homelands and million can't vote because they're black with the chorus: Were gonna say, I Ain't gonna play Sun CityThey were overpaying everybody to come down there and perform at Sun City, so I decided to use that as a symbol, and told myself if I could really tighten up the cultural boycott we could then make the next move toward the economic boycott, a former member of Bruce Springsteens band, Steven Van Zandt, who wrote the song, told Fast Company. In Kerzner opened the Lost City, a room hotel which was designed to mimic an ancient city, at Sun City. The site included a manmade forest with more than one million trees and plants and the water theme park Valley of Waves. Kerzner sold Sun City and his South African assets in the early s In Bantu Holomisa was kicked out of the ANC after claiming at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission that former cabinet minister Stella Sigcau accepted R as part of a bribe of R million paid by Kerzner to Transkei ruler George Matanzima. Holomisa, who later became the leader of the United Democratic Movement UDM was a majorgeneral in the Transkei Defence Force. Kerzner was accused of paying the bribe in exchange for gambling rights in the Transkei. Matanzima was jailed for the bribe, but corruption charges against Kerzner were dropped. Questions were also raised about how he secured gambling rights in Bophuthatswana, as well as massive tax breaks for Sun City and Lost City. He gave millions to both the ANC Nelson Mandela confirmed aKerzner donation of R million. Discuss how external
factors such as market dynamics and technological advancements influenced Kerzner's entrepreneurial process, and provide insights into how he adapted to these factors to achieve success?
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