{"id":841535,"date":"2025-11-01T19:41:14","date_gmt":"2025-11-01T17:41:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=841535"},"modified":"2025-11-02T07:51:28","modified_gmt":"2025-11-02T05:51:28","slug":"former-world-class-hotel-and-golf-course-in-south-africa-in-ruins-after-land-claim","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/property\/841535\/former-world-class-hotel-and-golf-course-in-south-africa-in-ruins-after-land-claim\/","title":{"rendered":"Former world-class hotel and golf course in South Africa in ruins after land claim"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Fish River Sun, a world-class hotel and 18-hole golf course designed by Gary Player in the Eastern Cape, has fallen into disrepair, and the golf course is overgrown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sol Kerzner, the founder of Sun International, developed and opened the Fish River Sun resort in 1989.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The resort was built in the former Ciskei as part of Kerzner’s strategy to open casino operations in the independent apartheid-era homelands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the time, gambling was illegal in South Africa. However, it was permitted in the homelands, such as Bophuthatswana and Ciskei.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kerzner modelled the Fish River Sun on his flagship Sun City resort. It was an entertainment destination featuring a hotel, casino, and golf course.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The hotel is situated in the heart of the Eastern Cape’s popular Sunshine Coast nestled between the Great Fish River and Old Woman\u2019s River.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is approximately 1.2 km away from the Indian Ocean, and the setting lends itself to breathtaking glimpses of this expanse of water.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Apart from the magnificent 18-hole golf course, designed by Gary Player, it also offered excellent conference and event facilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYour children can enjoy all the great entertainment of Kamp Kwena Children\u2019s Club, while you enjoy all the activities and facilities we have on offer,\u201d Sun International said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Fish River Sun hotel featured 83 rooms, including 75 double rooms, three 3-bedroom inter-leading rooms, and a presidential suite.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Fish River Sun Vacation Club self-catering units all had RCI Gold Crown Status and received a 4-star rating from the Tourism Grading Council.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The resort also had four restaurants and bars, including the Wahoo Restaurant, Castaways Shore Side Retreat, and the Kontiki Club House.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It featured a children\u2019s adventure playground, an on-site doctor and dentist, guided nature walks, a large swimming pool, and sports greens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fish River Sun land claim<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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After the end of apartheid and democratic elections in 1994, new national gambling laws were introduced in South Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The casino license for the Fish River Sun was eventually transferred to the Boardwalk Hotel and Casino in Port Elizabeth in 1999.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This put strain on the resort, but the biggest blow was a protracted land claim by the local Prudhoe community, which complicated its ownership and future viability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the late nineties, three separate communities, Mazazini, Prudhoe and Tharfield, claimed that they were the rightful owners of the Fish River Sun\u2019s land.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the next two decades, there were numerous legal battles over who the rightful claimants of the land were.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On 10 April 2018, the Land Claims Court gave the Prudhoe community ownership of the Fish River Sun farms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, by then, the damage had already been done. The uncertainty surrounding the land claim and financial pressure led to the closure of the Fish River Resort in 2017.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although the conclusion of the land claim was seen as a new chapter of prosperity for the community, the opposite happened.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mismanagement, internal divisions, and disputed lease agreements have left their R243 million land claim, including the Fish River Sun resort, paralysed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

South African Lawyer reported that it has been a legal and administrative nightmare over conflicting contracts signed with rival developers and unfulfilled promises of jobs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Fish River Sun collapsed<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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In May 2023, personnel and the staff of the resort were chased away by a gang which demanded money and jobs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Travel News reported that \u201cfrom Friday to Sunday, wholesale looting and destruction of property took place\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEvery single room in the property was broken into, and TVs, fridges, bedding, cutlery, computers, projectors, and all IT equipment were stolen.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA Quantum minibus was stripped down to a mere shell. Sources said vehicles with trailers were brought in to carry away the goods.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On 2 May 2023, Athol Trollip posted pictures of the Fish River Sun Hotel, shown below, following the looting by the gang.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MahalaX, a digital company with a 49-year lease to maintain the property for the benefit of the Prudhoe Community, said it decided to walk away following the attack.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This week, Jason Gordon from the group Stop Destroying RSA posted a video<\/a> of the current state of the Fish River Sun Hotel and Golf Resort.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He highlighted that the world-class Gary Player golf course is now overgrown and, essentially, non-existent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He added that the hotel and chalets, once among the best establishments in the region, have been plundered and now lie in ruins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Plans to rebuild the Fish River Sun resort<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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In June 2025, the Daily Dispatch reported that a consortium of South African and international investors plans to revive the resort.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The consortium is spearheaded by property mogul Xoliswa Daku of the Daku Group, which previously partnered with the late Sol Kerzner\u2019s Kerzner International.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It said executives from the multinational hotel group The Lux Collective, along with investors from Dubai, have visited the resort.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Lux Collective reportedly wants to make the former Fish River Sun resort the flagship of its South African portfolio.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The group had R600 million ready to start the first phase of the project to revive the resort to its former glory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, soon afterwards, reports surfaced that the redevelopment plan was in chaos, with no clear developer in complete control, competing claims, and legal intervention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The independent administrators are now reviewing the trust\u2019s affairs, including which contracts are lawful, the financial situation, and how to proceed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s unclear which developer will ultimately proceed, how the community will be assured of jobs, and when the resort will finally be revived.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Photos of the Fish River Sun before its collapse<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Photos of the Fish River Sun looting in 2023<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Fish River Sun today<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Fish River Sun, a world-class hotel and 18-hole golf course designed by Gary Player in the Eastern Cape, has fallen into disrepair, and the golf course is overgrown.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":841547,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12755],"tags":[23966,23967,23968,13666,4987],"class_list":["post-841535","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-property","tag-fish-river-sun","tag-fish-river-sun-vacation-club","tag-mahalax","tag-sol-kerzner","tag-sun-international"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/841535","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=841535"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/841535\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":841671,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/841535\/revisions\/841671"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/841547"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=841535"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=841535"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=841535"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}