Will Fish River Resort rise again?

A consortium of SA and international investors plans to upgrade the former Fish River Sun resort outside Port Alfred, with R600m ready for the first phase of the rebuild.

Since January, executives from multinational hotel group The Lux Collective, together with investors from Dubai, have visited the resort, now owned by the Prudhoe community, in the hope of making it the flagship of their SA portfolio.

The Lux Collective is part of the IBL Group and has been in the hospitality business for decades, running resorts in Mauritius, Dubai, Singapore and the UK, and recently Mozambique, Botswana, Kenya and Namibia.

Artist's impressions of its plans depict a completely overhauled resort influenced by the design of Lux Collective’s Mauritius resorts, which “resonate with the Fish River”.

The consortium is spearheaded locally by property mogul Xoliswa Daku of the Daku Group, which previously partnered with the late Sol Kerzner’s Kerzner International to run the One and Only Hotel in Cape Town.

Daku said the group’s “experience in Kerzner’s models” would benefit the Fish River resort.

The consortium has roped in architect Clive Shepherd, who designed the original hotel and casino in the 1980s.

“We opted to invite back the original designers to revive it to its glory days,” she said.

“Our focus is to redevelop the hotel and add more rooms and conferencing facilities ... we need to fix the Gary Player golf course to bring back international and local golfers and create about 48 upmarket villas along the coastline.”

The Fish River Resort closed in 2017 after battling to stay afloat. Its gambling licence was reallocated to the Boardwalk Casino in Gqeberha.

The government then bought the resort for more than R70m in 2018.

It was eventually handed over to the Prudhoe community as part of a land claim after a 25-year court battle.

Several groups unsuccessfully attempted to run the hotel, rebranded as the Fish River Resort, with film companies even trying to turn it into a filming mecca. The ninth season of Survivor SA was filmed there.

But disputes among the community continually thwarted development plans, with MahalaX, which signed a 49-year lease and promised to invest R500m, being forced out after community members took over the property and forced a foreign film production off the site.

The Prudhoe Trust then rescinded the lease.

The once-thriving hotel, casino and golf resort was over time reduced to a shell of its former self after being badly damaged by wholesale looting and vandalism.

Daku said the consortium wanted to work with the community to find a way forward.

The proposed development had the potential to create a substantial number of jobs and attract businesses to the Sunshine Coast.

A delegation from the UAE is expected to meet the community on Sunday to discuss the redevelopment plans.

“We convinced them to invest in SA,” Daku said.

“We have been operating in the property space for more than 20 years and we are also working with the London-based International Tourism Investment Corporation (ITIC) as our transaction advisers, who have been instrumental in brokering the deal for us.”

The transaction advisers include ITIC group chief executive Ibrahim Ayoub and former UN World Tourism Organisation (UN Tourism) secretary-general Dr Taleb Rifai.

The consortium has also roped in the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) to assist the community.

“We responded to a procurement call, which led to a resolution by the Prudhoe Trust to sign an agreement for redevelopment and management of the resort.

“Our vision is to share a percentage of turnover with the trust and ensure local procurement.

“The IDC has committed to working with us in ensuring the trust’s readiness for enterprise development and equity participation.”

On Monday, a Dispatch team visited the Prudhoe community, which had just been handed a further 2,000 hectares of farmland to conclude the R243m land claim.

Since March, the community trust has been in full control of 9,305 hectares of land, including luxury game reserve Maitland Farm and its wildlife.

Prudhoe committee leader Gladman Tom said the community had not yet agreed to the deal.

“Nothing is confirmed. We still need to hear what they have to present.

“We had three investors. Some pulled out because of the community demands.

“We have a meeting scheduled for Sunday with these investors from Dubai. People just want to work; that is the main priority here and the people are desperate.”

Tom said the government had set the community up for failure.

“We’ve been pleading with the government to assist us.

“We are worried about vandalism. You can’t just give a community such a big facility and leave like that. We are being set up for failure.”

Community leader Zolani Breakfast said they needed funds to keep Maitland Farm operating.

“It is true, we are being set up for failure, and we are yet to receive our settlement fee to enable us to run these facilities ourselves.”

Breakfast said some vandalism had been committed by Prudhoe community members.

“They know our vulnerabilities. We recently killed three hunting dogs at Maitland and confiscated torches used by those who came to poach animals.

“We later discovered that the dogs belonged to one of our villagers.”

The government spent R39.9m to purchase Maitland Farm and surrounding land, previously owned by Philip Price and his business partners since 1997.

Price blamed the authorities for dragging out the process.

“If they had been given their whole claim at the right time this could have been a huge game reserve. Now the community has ended up fighting among themselves.

“I see an international investor coming in once they have planned the big picture, which is to demarcate how much land you are going to put to game, revive the golf club, the development around the golf course and have the other half of the land, where Maitland is, as a game reserve which cross-subsidises during the seasons.”

Ngqushwa municipality mayor Sanga Maneli said it had been sidelined by the community.

“They have their own way they operate but we should be working together.”

Daku said intervention by land reform minister Mzwanele Nyhontso would help quell tensions.

“This is a great opportunity to advance this community ... What we have signed for is the Fish River Resort, but we can’t access it now due to the trust’s conflicts.”

The Land Claims Commission did not respond to questions.

Daily Dispatch