Legendary South African businessman, Sol Kerzner, has died at the age of 84 in Cape Town. His family confirmed his passing in a statement yesterday.
Kerzner was probably best known for his building of Sun City, the gambling resort in North-West, in what used to be Bophuthatswana.
Kerzner, the son of Jewish Russian immigrants, began his career in the hotel industry in 1962 when he bought his first hotel in Johannesburg. In 1969, in partnership with South African Breweries, he started his chain of Southern Sun hotels. In 1979 he began developing the resort which he was most famous for, Sun City.
He was a controversial figure and a number of claims were made that he had bribed Bantustan leaders to secure gambling rights for his resorts, notably by Bantu Holomisa. However, he was never charged with a crime or prosecuted.
Kerzner was married four times (one union was with Anneline Kriel, a Miss World) and is survived by four children and ten grandchildren. A son, Butch, predeceased him, dying in a helicopter crash in 2006.