COVID-19: LUGOGO SUN CLOSED!

MBABANE – Sun International has resolved to shed casual workers and force permanent employees to take extraordinary leave as a desperate move to stay afloat amid the devastating economic effects of the novel coronavirus.

The hotel has also announced the closure of Lugogo Sun effective today. The establishment has 194 permanent staff members with their casual utilisation made as per the business demand. During busy times such as banquets, including the King’s Birthday where close to 2 000 guests are catered for, there are normally 120 casual staff members utilised. The devastating news was confirmed by the General Manager, Lance Rossouw, during a press briefing at Royal Swazi Sun Convention Centre, yesterday. Rossouw said under normal circumstances, they utilised far less casual workers.

Retrenching

The general manager emphasised that they would not be retrenching their permanent staff members at the moment but would rather send them on extraordinary leave following the low business levels. Rossouw also mentioned that with effect from today, they would be closing the Lugogo Sun for normal operations. The general manager said Lugogo Sun would be reopened as and when required, which would be irregular at this stage. According to Rossouw, the rationale behind the closing of the establishment was due to numerous cancellations and postponements of business at both hotels (Lugogo and Royal Swazi) that was taking place. Currently, he said the Royal Swazi Spa would be able to accommodate all forthcoming bookings going into the near future.

Rossouw added that the staff that was working at Lugogo Sun would be incorporated into the Royal Swazi Spa Hotel, Casino, Convention Centre and Country Club. He said there would be also a number of staff members who needed to take accumulated leave and days off. Further, the general manager noted that business would continue as normal in these operations and all recently introduced protocols by government would be strictly observed. These, he said, included social distancing, not more than 50 people at a gathering, ample hygiene and hand-sanitising stations among others.

Isolation

Rossouw stated that they were working with government to assist with isolation facilities if need be but these would not include Lugogo Sun and Royal Swazi Spa. He highlighted that all their employees had been seriously trained over the last two weeks in all aspects of COVID-19 and the spread thereof in cooperation with the Ministry of Health, occupational health and safety practitioners and the in-house nursing sister. Meanwhile, this publication reported last week that three hotels had lost close to E5 million in two days due to the developments of the coronavirus.

This was disclosed by Business Eswatini in an urgent letter written to the Principal Secretary in the Ministry of Labour and Social Security, Thulani Mkhaliphi. The letter titled ‘Economic impact of the coronavirus (COVID -19) on employment relations – request commissioner’s intervention’ narrated that the Board of Directors of Business Eswatini noted that while the coronavirus was a health issue, it was also a business subject. Business Eswatini, through its Chief Executive Officer, Nathi Dlamini, acknowledged the address by the Prime Minister, Ambrose Mandvulo Dlamini, to the nation wherein COVID-19 was declared a national emergency in terms of Section 29 of the Disaster Management Act, 2006.

He said the tourism and hotel industries had already showed signs of being negatively affected worldwide and Eswatini was no exception. Using this industry as an example, Dlamini painted a gloomy picture of the tourism industry and said industry players had reported room cancellations and drastically reduced numbers of tourists. For instance, Dlamini said, Sun International had alleged to have lost E3 million of bookings through cancellations on March 11-12, 2020. “The Hilton Garden lost over E1 million of business through cancellations in one day while Mountain Inn lost E500 000 worth of business when the president of South Africa declared a state of disaster,” Dlamini said.

He said at the moment, the occupancy rates were around five to 10 per cent, which could barely meet operational costs of businesses. On the other hand, he said government had called off conferences with more than 50 people, which ultimately meant that the conference business would not be there for hoteliers despite that it was the core of their business. Given the aforementioned scenarios, Dlamini said: “Loss of income will inadvertently lead to the closure of businesses.”

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