I’m trying really hard not to cuss out Sophie Chandauka in every single one of these stories about Sentebale. The malignant audacity of this woman is astounding – she’s either completely unhinged or she has made a conscious effort to destroy a small charity which was doing amazing work for underserved kids living with HIV. When Chandauka manipulated her way into the chairmanship of Sentebale, it was flush with cash, almost entirely from Prince Harry donating part of his Spare proceeds and proceeds from Harry’s charity polo matches. Chandauka saw how much money they had on hand and started looting their coffers, making lavish payments to “consultants” without board authorization. She also threw a tantrum about Harry’s polo matches (and the presence of so many A-listers like Serena Williams) and Harry’s plan to fundraise more in America. Now that we’re almost five months past the resignations of Harry, Prince Seeiso and the board of trustees, it’s looking like Chandauka has almost completed her project. She’s mothballed Sentebale’s Children’s Center, looted the charity’s reserves and now she’s firing Sentebale’s staffers.
The charity founded by Prince Harry in honour of his mother has made all but one of its London staff redundant amid a funding crisis. Sentebale lost donations after a feud between the Duke of Sussex and Sophie Chandauka, its chairwoman, resulted in accusations of racism and misogyny, the mass resignation of the board and a damning Charity Commission report. Now The Times can reveal the HIV/Aids charity has laid off four of its five London staff, including its global head of finance and compliance, on top of other redundancies in its African teams.
While the charity has claimed in public its donors remain “steadfast”, a redundancy letter from April seen by The Times reveals Sentebale telling staff it “does not have” donor funding and the charity is in “retrenchment”.
A recent fundraiser fell well short of expectations, with legacy donors citing the chairwoman’s continuing involvement in the charity as their reason for withdrawing support.
Last week, The Times reported that the Mamohato Children’s Centre (MCC), in Lesotho — which once hosted more than 700 children per year at educational camps — had been “effectively mothballed”. Staff there have been told to work from home to save money, and the charity is said to have run down much of the £1.4 million built up over two decades.
“The main thing we’re all waiting for are the accounts,” a source said. “There have been a lot of redundancies, there’s been people who have been let go, a lot of churn and people have left.”
The redundancy round, which started in March, resulted in at least two dozen staff leaving the charity and its programmes, the charity confirmed. It said funders responsible for two thirds of its income had remained steadfast, and insisted any other difficulties with raising money were the result of the “adverse media campaign” launched by “the duke and the former trustees”.
Problems began when the board challenged Chandauka over a £400,000 bill for consultants, which they said had brought little return. As the row deepened, she was asked to step down, but instead complained to the Charity Commission, alleging bullying, misogyny and racism.
Former staff at Sentebale, across its bases in the UK, Botswana and Lesotho, appeared to remain loyal to the duke. One said they believed Chandauka had “run the organisation into the ground” and that her initial request for a £2,200 day rate as chairwoman — later withdrawn — had infuriated staff. She denies this version of events and claims it was Prince Harry who proposed paying her. Sentebale said its move to reduce its workforce by around 27 people was “deliberate and responsible” given uncertainty over international donor funding and events, and that, alongside cost, the redundancies in London were part of its strategy to “transition senior executive roles to southern Africa”.
Chandauka has f–ked up so badly, even British outlets are doing an honest, unbiased account of what happened in the past year. A few points I’d like to make. This whole thing arguably started because Chandauka was against “fundraising in America” and she felt like Sentebale needed more separation from Harry/the Sussexes. She also argued that Sentebale needed to fundraise IN African countries. That’s allegedly why she was spending so lavishly on those consultants – she was looking for fundraising avenues in Africa. So why is Sentebale still struggling? Chandauka got what she wanted – Harry has divorced himself from Sentebale, and the American and European fundraising has completely dried up. So… fundraise in African countries, like you wanted. What’s that? I’m being told she never really intended to do any of that, those were just her unhinged attack lines against Harry.
Anyway, I have no idea how Sentebale is structured and what happens when the money completely runs out. Will Chandauka ever admit defeat? Or is something else going to happen, like an infusion of cash from one of Prince William’s allies, but only if they turn Sentebale into an environmental charity?
Photos and screengrabs courtesy of Sky News, Cover Images.
