Sol Kerzner dies at the age of 84
At the age of 12, Sol who grew up in Bez Valley in the east of Joburg, played with the Johannesburg Symphony Orchestra and took up boxing in the same year.
Brandon Kerzner, son of hotel tycoon Sol Kerzner confirmed that the founder of the Southern Sun hotel group, Sun International and Kerzner International, died of cancer at the family’s home in Cape Town on Saturday night.
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Kerzner, the son of Russian immigrants, achieved international prominence with groundbreaking resorts that helped transform the tourism industries in SA, Mauritius, Maldives, Bahamas and Dubai.
At the age of 12, Sol who grew up in Bez Valley in the east of Joburg, played with the Johannesburg Symphony Orchestra and took up boxing in the same year. By the time he graduated from the University of the Witwatersrand with a degree in accountancy, Kerzner was varsity welterweight champion.
Kerzner’s career in hospitality began in 1962 when he decided to leave the accounting profession and purchased The Astra, a small inn in Durban. His breakthrough project was
The Beverly Hills, Umhlanga Rocks, the first five-star hotel in South Africa.
Kerzner went on to build the 450-room Elangeni Hotel on the Durban beachfront and then partnered with South African Breweries to establish Southern Sun Hotels, which by 1983 operated 30 luxury hotels.
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Kerzner’s best-known achievement was Sun City. Work started in 1975 and over the next 10 years, Kerzner built four hotels, a man-made lake, two Gary Player golf courses and an entertainment centre with an indoor 6 000-seat arena which played host to a world-class roster of artists including Queen, Frank Sinatra, Liza Minelli and Shirley Brassey.
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Following SA’s first democratic elections, former President Nelson Mandela asked Kerzner to arrange the VIP function for the Presidential inauguration, which was attended by most of the world’s leaders and Heads of State. That cemented Kerzner’s relationship with the iconic world statesman.
@_KennyRogers & #SolKerzner have both passed away today. Sad day!#RIPKennyRogers #RIPSolKerzner
— Tracey C (@TraceyCownley) March 21, 2020
In 1994, Kerzner also made his first major acquisition outside Africa, The Paradise Island Resort in The Bahamas where he transformed the bankrupt property into the extravagant Atlantis Resort.
By this time, Sol was working closely with his son, Butch, and they rebranded the company as Kerzner International. The father and son duo built their first casino resort property in the United States, The Mohegan Sun in 1996.
Rip Mr Sol Kerzner, the first tycoon I heard of when I was a young boy.
— Saint Angelbert (@kazwane7) March 21, 2020
Butch was killed in a helicopter accident in 2006 while scouting for sites in the Dominican Republic.
Kerzner proceeded to extend the Atlantis brand globally with the development of Atlantis, The Palm in Dubai.
Kerzner returned to Africa in 2009 to develop the 500-room Mazagan Beach Resort in Morocco and also opened the One&Only Cape Town.
In December 2010, Kerzner’s passion for hospitality was recognised in the Queen’s Birthday Honors list, with the award of the insignia Knight Commander of the Most Distinguished Order of St Michael and St George (KCMG).
The One&Only Group announced projects in China, Australia, and Montenegro in 2012 and the following year saw the unveiling of plans for the third Atlantis Resort on China’s Hainan Island. Proposals to expand Atlantis, Dubai with 800 additional rooms and over 230 luxury residential apartments in the Royal Atlantis development were also announced, with Sol leading the planning and design of these new projects for Kerzner International.
In 2014, Kerzner finally decided to exit Kerzner International and retired as chairman of the company.
“Dad taught us family values, no matter how busy he was, he always made time for us, his family. He would take a call from any one of us in the middle of an important meeting or fly half-way across the world to get to a grandchild’s birthday party, ” said his daughter Andrea.
Sol is survived by his children Andrea, Beverley, Brandon and Chantal and ten grandchildren.
