In the early half of 2024, The Times of London and other British outlets (notably the Daily Mail) were running a full-scale pressure campaign to somehow force Prince Harry to remove himself from the board of African Parks. Harry had been the president of AP for six years, then he was promoted to board member. While there were genuine controversies involving AP, the British media did a “big stretch” to make every single of those controversies solely about Harry and how HE needed to resign from AP. Suspiciously enough, the Times published a piece, adjacent to that campaign, about how Prince William and Harry had always “fought about Africa” and William didn’t like how Harry had access to all of that money and power. It felt like William was behind the way the AP stuff was covered.
Anyway, I decided to take that trip down memory lane because I’m getting deja vu with this Sentebale mess. The way everything has come out, it feels like another operation from Windsor Inc. Long story short, Sentebale’s board of trustees didn’t agree with the direction their chairwoman Sophie Chandauka was trying to take on Sentebale’s behalf, and so they asked her to resign as chair. She refused, and ran straight to the Charity Commission in the UK to sue them. This week, Lesotho’s Prince Seeiso and Prince Harry, Sentebale co-founders and patrons of Sentebale, resigned in protest, taking the side of the trustees. The Daily Mail’s Becky English bizarrely gloated about the situation, suggesting that it never would have happened if Harry was still a working royal. In yesterday’s coverage, I used some coverage of Chandauka’s statement, but here it is in full:
Dr. Chandauka said in a statement obtained by PEOPLE that she had been “guided by the principles of fairness and equitable treatment for all, regardless of social status or financial means.”
“There are people in this world who behave as though they are above the law and mistreat people, and then play the victim card and use the very press they disdain to harm people who have the courage to challenge their conduct,” the statement continued.
Dr. Chandauka added that this is “the story of a woman who dared to blow the whistle about issues of poor governance, weak executive management, abuse of power, bullying, harassment, misogyny, misogynoir – and the coverup that ensued.”
She also went on to say that her work with the charity was “not a vanity project from which I can resign when I am called to account.”
“I will continue to faithfully perform my role as Chair of the Board, and I look forward to the opportunity to work with others who are interested in issues of health, wealth and climate resilience for young people in Africa,” Dr. Chandauka added.
“Then play the victim card and use the very press they disdain to harm people who have the courage to challenge their conduct…” Like… was her statement written by Piers Morgan or something? We’re talking about a charity which provided healthcare for kids with HIV. When has Harry “played the victim card” ever, but specifically about Sentebale or his work in Lesotho? This woman sounds completely delulu. “The story of a woman who dared to blow the whistle about issues of poor governance, weak executive management, abuse of power…” She is the one with the power? She is the chairwoman. She is the weak executive. She is the one poorly governing.
A few more things – Chandauka was the woman “bullied” (lol) by Meghan at the polo match last year. The bullying incident was when they were all taking photos with the polo team and Chandauka thought she would stand on Prince Harry’s right side and Meghan said “do you want to come stand over here,” motioning to her left. That was the big drama, which was amplified by the British royalists. Lastly, CNN covered the Sentebale mess, and they noted this: Britain’s PA Media news agency “said [Chandauka] claimed she had reported the trustees to the UK’s Charity Commission and that a UK court had issued an injunction to stop her dismissal. CNN has not seen a copy of the alleged injunction from the UK’s High Court. A source familiar with the matter told CNN that no such order had been issued.” She lied about an injunction?
Photos courtesy of Cover Images.
