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Wonder Hlongwa
Controversial Durban businessman Vivian Reddy, who was suspected of being the mysterious Sarafina II donor, has once again attracted attention for his generosity.
Last week he announced an “eight digit” contribution to the Curries Fountain Stadium Sports Development Centre. The Mail & Guardian has learnt that Afrisun, a company in which Reddy is a director, might fund the entire project which costs R20- million.
Afrisun, with Sun International, is involved in holiday resorts and casino developments in South Africa. It is one of the bidders for a casino licence for the five-star Zimbali Lodge Resort, to be opened in April next year along the north coast of Durban. Reddy says his funding of Curries Fountain has nothing to do with the casino bid.
“The Curries Fountain board was approached by many people in the casino industry who wanted to get involved in the project. Every one of them said they will only get involved if they get the casino licence,” Reddy explains.
“But our involvement is genuinely for the development of Curries Fountain. We hope the substantial amount that we are going to donate will help them realise their dream, even before the casino bid is closed.”
Reddy has close contacts with the cream of South African politics. Politicians close to him say his record is clean and he is a very determined man. Business people say he is a good example of black businessmen who do not rely on the paternalistic support of white giants.
In his boardroom at his home, which has grown immensely from its original two- bedroomed family house, he is pictured with the who’s who in South African politics. There are photographs of him with President Nelson Mandela, Minister of Health Nkosazana Zuma, her husband Jacob, businessman Cyril Ramaphosa, Minister of Communications Jay Naidoo and other leading politicians.
Reddy maintains that he is a staunch African National Congress supporter, but expects nothing from the party in return. He says his generosity emanates from his background as the son of a poor Indian man who did all he could for his community. He grew up admiring his father for his open heart.
However, Reddy was equally close to politicians in the former House of Delegates who say there was a system to ensure all “disadvantaged entrepreneurs” were given a chance to succeed. It was through these links in the 1980s that Reddy was given a number of contracts to build schools.
But Reddy dismisses these claims, saying his business only boomed after the release of Mandela, and his company won massive tenders.
However, one of his friends from the House of Delegates is now employed by Reddy as a manager in charge of the company’s social responsibility programme.
Reddy’s company, Edison Power, recently won a R40-million contract with the Department of Health for the electrification of the new Durban Academic Hospital being built in Cato Manor. Reddy denied that his close links with Nkosazana Zuma played any role in his company winning the contract.
However, some people believe he bribed Durban Metropolitan councillors for the contract. After winning a tender to electrify Durban’s International Convention Centre, his telephone was bugged and his house shot at.
Reddy won much praise recently from Richmond residents when he donated R250 000 to install floodlights in the volatile area. But this week, as he was leaving his home for a meeting in Richmond, he showed the M&G his shotgun which he says he uses to defend himself against some people in Richmond whom he “mistrusts”.
He has also donated R25 000 to King Goodwill Zwelithini for peace and development projects. Reddy’s company is negotiating with Zwelithini to build a R1- million peace centre in KwaMashu, which will service victims of violence and rape. It is expected to open during the second half of 1998.
Like many black businessmen, Reddy says that during the apartheid era he was subjected to all forms of discrimination.
“At one stage we got a municipal job in northern Natal and they said I must come and sign a document. I went in there and they were all sitting around the table and they said, `Hey! What are you doing here?’
“I said I came to sign the document and they asked where my boss was. I said my boss was at home looking after my children. Throughout the job we were subjected to the most cruel scrutiny, we were treated with suspicion. But we perfected our workmanship so that, at the end of the day, we became recognised for the quality of our work and not the colour of our skin.”