Waning local Sun vindicates Sol Kerzner cashing in Sol Kerzner with Lucas Mangope in 1977 above. SUN International SA's run of bad luck and its rather gloomy prospects are a far cry from the more heady, prosperous days of Sol Kerzner, the man who seemed to singlehandedly build Sun International into a dominant casino resort group with major investments in the homelands and a near monopoly on casino operations in the southern African region. His departure from SA at the end of the 1980s and his gradual withdrawal, over years, from the local operations seems, with hindsight, to have been particularly opportune.
Critics believe there was little coincidence.
They say his last big project in SA, the R1-billion Palace of the Lost City, was a kind of CV, a showpiece aimed at bringing his name to the fore ahead of him securing major international resorts. After being cleared of all charges in SA this year, Kerzner again found himself in the spotlight on the same issue when he applied for a permanent licence to own and operate the Resorts Casino Hotel. After the dirty linen was aired in public for the umpteenth time, the New Jersey Control Commission this week postponed its decision on whether to grant him a permanent licence to operate the Atlantic City casino. Granting of the licence will clear his name. After saying it would decide his fate by Thursday, the commission postponed the decision to October 22 as it needed more time to complete its written decision and because its head was at a gaming convention.