Estate Living Magazine Issue 30 Smart Environments June 2018 | Page 64

Sun City reinvents itself
Sun City is quite something. Despite being
around for more than three decades,
it has still managed, (albeit with a recent
revamp to the tune of R1 billion) to stay
relevant to young, old, near and far.
How so? Well, the answer it seems, lies in being able to offer
people what they want, and what they cannot get anywhere
else.
Sun City was originally the brainchild of Sol Kerzner, who
never doubted his idea would work from the moment he set
eyes on the site, on the edge of an inactive volcanic crater in
what was then the Bophuthatswana homeland.
The resort’s glory days were in the 1980s, in the height of
apartheid when gambling was illegal in South Africa – but
legal in the ‘homelands’ on the country’s doorstep. Sun City
officially opened its doors in 1979, with one hotel, one casino
and one golf course, and welcomed a mixed crowd of 15,000
strong in the first few days alone. Considering the resort
was designed to hold 3,000 at a maximum, the opening was
deemed a roaring success.
South Africans flocked to the guilty pleasures of being able to
drink alcohol at any time of the day, gamble to their heart’s
content, and watch vibrant Extravaganza shows. It was a
pleasure palace, a world of glitz, glamour and bright lights
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similar to that of Las Vegas, and unlike anything the rather
puritanical apartheid-era South Africa had ever seen. The
resort hosted top-of-the-range boxing bouts, international
music artists and Miss World pageants, and was the home of
the Million Dollar golf championship – at that stage one of the
richest golf tournaments in the world.
Sun City was most definitely in business, thanks mainly to
its casino. Gambling was the biggest revenue earner, and
the cash flow catapulted a quick but massive growth spurt,
subsidising the building of The Palace of the Lost City within
the first decade alone. The expansion helped drive investment
opportunities for the local economy and create 10,000 jobs for
people living within a 30-kilometre radius.
Things nosedived a bit post-1994 when casinos in South Africa
were legalised, and more than 40 licences for urban casinos
were made available pretty much overnight. Sun City now had
something it had previously not known – healthy competition
and plenty of it, but that was not going to stop the resort from
doing business as usual.