Sun City mostly normal 'after huge effort' but some rooms still unusable

Sun City has thanked its staff, service providers and contractors for their "huge effort" in getting the resort back to normal for visitors.

A severe hailstorm and flash flood caused damage to the resort and vehicles in the North West at the weekend.

Day visitors had to be evacuated from Sun Central and the Sun City Welcome Centre which were severely affected by the storm.

A number of rooms were flooded, particularly at the Soho Hotel.

The resort said it was now open for business. Mop-up operations had restored most of the resort facilities used by hotel guests and day visitors.

"The Valley of the Waves and Sun Central restaurants, including the retail mode, is open for business and most of the facilities are up and running.

"We still have some challenges with respect to the shortage of hotel room inventory, particularly at the Soho Hotel at the casino where 100 rooms are out of commission," said Raul de Lima, group executive for Sun City Resort.

He said a further 40 rooms were out of commission at The Cascades and 10 at The Palace.

He said the resort had managed to fix all the rooms at The Vacation Club and The Cabanas, and would be able to accommodate guests who had bookings.

The flooding had damaged 26 rooms at The Vacation Club and 40 rooms at The Cabanas.

"For the rest, the resort is back in fairly good shape. We need to commend our staff and service providers, including some of our contractors, for the huge effort that went into putting the resort back into a condition which is acceptable to visitors," De Lima said.

He said the resort's Christmas festivities were back on track.

"Sun City is all systems go and we invite and encourage day visitors who would like to visit the resort to do so.

"From a hotel perspective, however, we would still encourage guests to phone our reservations contact centre to ensure that their booking is still intact and that there is  accommodation."