Hotel-tycoon Sol Kerzner visits UJ

AUCKLAND PARK – Students of the University of Johannesburg’s School of Tourism and Hospitality were star struck when the “Sun King”came to visit on 15 July.

Hotel-tycoon Sol Kerzner, one of the school’s founders, sat down for a sumptuous lunch (catered and served by the school) with hospitality and tourism students in the Waterford Restaurant to share some of the secrets to his success. University board members and faculty members were also there to enjoy the lunch with the famous tycoon.

“You need a combination of things to make a success out of your life,” Kerzner told the students.

“You have to be a little lucky, and you have to choose to do something that you might be good at. The ability to understand the industry you’re in and to learn and be educated, and follow your instincts was paramount for me. And you really have to love your work. It’s important to love what you do, because then when you work every day it’s not a chore, it’s exciting.”

He also advocated relying on team work. “I instinctively knew I had to recruit talented people for my ventures. I was so fortunate to have the people I had with me. You have to work as a team, that’s a recipe for success.”

Nothing, he emphasised, could be accomplished without driving ambition and hard work.

Kerzner said he knew nothing of the hotel business when he started.“I’d never even been in a professional kitchen. I was a chartered accountant. I moved from Joburg to Durban, and somehow I got interested in hotels,” he recounted.

“I concluded that hotels in South Africa were not up to par. By luck, one or two people backed me when I decided I wanted to get into this business, and I acquired a hotel in the backstreets of Durban in 1975. It became very successful. So, I went and looked for my next potential hotel property. That was how it started.”

At the time, Kerzner had grand plans to bring South African hotels up to overseas-standard.

“While I was watching bulldozers mowing down rocks for a property I’d just acquired in Umhlanga, I realised that I’d never even seen these overseas hotels I was envisioning. I’d never been overseas. I got on the plane and went to do research in Miami.”

Kerzner, who is celebrating his 79th birthday next month, isn’t aiming to retire any time soon, but he did sell his family interests in Kerzner International Holdings – the group he started 20 years ago in April.

He was asked what he would do if he were president for a day. “That’s really tough. Over the years South Africa has been written off. But we’ve been resilient through the years, the country has just marched on. I have great confidence in our country, but we need good leadership. Honestly, we need another Nelson Mandela, not me. That would be good.”

Kerzner, who knew Mandela, simply said that his humility was incredible.