Retrenchments in mines surrounding the Sun City resort in the North West have a “grave” impact on the establishment‚ parliament’s portfolio committee on economic development was told during oversight visits.

“On day one of its week-long oversight today‚ the committee met with Sun City management to discuss ownership‚ management‚ job creation‚ enterprise development‚ the number of entrepreneurs and black-owned bed and breakfast establishments and guest houses in the area‚” the committee said in a statement.

“The committee heard that Sun City is highly dependent on disposable income in communities living in the surrounding area‚ and the looming threat of retrenchments at mines such as the Impala Platinum mine‚ which retrenched about 2‚000 miners in 2017‚ poses a big risk for the resort.”

According to the committee‚ Sun City currently faces a revenue shortage of R100 million and bookings are around 30% lower compared to the previous financial year.

“This downward performance poses a major threat to the staff of around 10‚000 people‚ including service providers. The resort itself has a staff complement of around 4‚200 permanent staff‚ 1‚300 casual staff employed through labour brokers and 1‚200 casual staff employed by Sun International.”

The resort also faces a number of other challenges related to mining in the Pilanesberg area close to the resort‚ roadworks en route to the resort that have been on-going since 2010‚ and the issue of land-use management between traditional authorities‚ the committee said.

However‚ despite these challenges‚ the committee said it was told that the resort has given a lot of attention to developing local entrepreneurs.

“About 70 per cent of the resort’s construction and maintenance budget is spent on local broad-based black economic empowerment (B-BBEE) companies in the area‚ while the resort has also given business to two black‚ female-owned companies.”

* Sun City has since the publication of this article issued a statement denying the retrenchments. Read the full statement below.

RESPONSE TO MEDIA ARTICLES LINKING SUN CITY’S PERFORMANCE TO MINING

16 August 2018

We have been made aware of a report in the media linking Sun City to a story about platinum mines in the North West Province. We can confirm that the information was neither issued by Sun International, nor authorised by us. The details are factually incorrect and the numbers quoted are not indicative of Sun City’s performance which is underpinned by its broad market appeal, including international tourism.

Zoleka Skweyiya

Sun International

Group Manager for Communications and Customer Insights