It only took a few days for the conversation to noticeably shift in the British media’s coverage of this Sentebale mess. When the story broke, the royalist media gloated about Sophie Chandauka’s bizarre statement accusing Prince Harry of misogynoir and “playing the victim.”. But regular people, people without a particular agenda, find it extremely telling that the entire board of trustees resigned in protest of Chandauka, and that Prince Harry and Prince Seeiso stepped down as well. It’s clear to a lot of people that Chanauka’s statement was extremely odd, and that the board had every right to ask for her resignation, given her poor performance as chairwoman. Look at this noticeable shift even in the Daily Mail’s coverage:
Prince Harry’s beloved charity Sentebale could implode without him at the helm to pull in funding, insiders warned yesterday. Amid the bitter internal power struggle that saw the duke step down, one source said the whole thing ‘seems utterly nuts’. In a dramatic behind-the-scenes showdown, Harry and his co-founder Prince Seeiso of Lesotho sided with trustees who resigned en masse after failing to unseat the charity’s chairwoman Dr Sophie Chandauka.
An insider told the Mail: ‘I don’t know what she’s thinking. She puts out this rather mad statement attacking the whole cause. It seems utterly nuts. Why would you want a charity created by Harry and Prince Seeiso, after their lost mothers, which obviously and quite rightly pulls on the heart-strings, to lose them? They are at the centre of the cause. It doesn’t make any sense. What is her endgame to all of this?’
Exactly – what is her endgame and what does she possibly think she can achieve with her hostile takeover of a charity founded in honor of Seesio and Harry’s mothers? With Harry and Seeiso resigning in protest of Chandauka?? Meanwhile, the Times has now published TWO articles critical of Chandauka. Here’s the piece where they had comments from one of the trustees who stepped down late last year, specifically because of Chandauka’s “dictatorial” management style.
Baroness Chalker of Wallasey, who served as a trustee of Prince Harry’s African charity for nearly 20 years, has described its chairwoman’s “almost dictatorial” style, which led to clashes and ultimately prompted her, the prince and other trustees to leave the organisation. Chalker, a former overseas development minister, told The Times that her retirement from the Sentebale board in November was in response to Sophie Chandauka’s leadership.
“I was not happy with the direction in which the chair was, or was not, taking [the charity],” said Chalker, 82, who became a trustee when Harry co-founded Sentebale in 2006 with Lesotho’s Prince Seeiso. “I did not feel I had the opportunity or energy to put it right.”
Chalker described the announcement that the prince had quit the charity in solidarity with trustees who had lost faith in Chandauka as “very sad” but not entirely surprising. “How can I put it? I would say almost dictatorial,” Chalker said, referring to communications from the chair who took up the post last year.
“It was just not the right relationship between the chairwoman and the board and I don’t blame them [for resigning],” added Chalker, whose departure in November was quickly followed by that of another trustee, Andrew Tucker. Richard Miller quit as chief executive in December after five years in the role. Chalker said that she was left “in absolute shock” by the allegations in the chair’s statement that appeared to suggest that Sentebale was a “vanity project” for Harry, Seeiso and trustees.
In her defence of the royal patrons and the outgoing board, Chalker said: “In my view the board have been faithful, honest and straight throughout my time and the long experience was in the best interests of the charity and its intentions and work for the children in Lesotho and Botswana. Of that I remain convinced.”
Chalker, who was a Conservative MP for 20 years and Africa minister for eight years from 1987, was given a life peerage in 1992 and continued to work on projects in the developing world, including Africa. She also became a friend of Diana, the late Princess of Wales.
I don’t know if Harry and Seeiso asked the former trustees to speak on the record, but I’m glad they are. I’m glad that there’s been immediate pushback from two trustees going on the record, dismissing Chandauka’s bizarre claims and speaking about how she alienated trustees and sponsors.
Photos courtesy of Cover Images.
