Prince Harry has been criticised by the chair of an African charity he co-founded in 2006 in memory of his late mother, Princess Diana, and from which he recently stepped down. The Duke of Sussex announced his resignation earlier this week in a joint statement with Prince Seeiso of Lesotho, the other founder of Sentebale. The princes were patrons of the organisation and weren’t on the board of trustees.
They said they were quitting in support of the trustees, who left after a dispute with chairperson Sophie Chandauka. Sentebale’s trustees demanded that Dr Chandauka resign over a dispute about whether the charity should focus fundraising in Africa. In response, Dr Chandauka sued the charity in a bid to remain in post – leading those trustees to quit themselves in protest. Now Dr Chandauka has accused the Duke of trying to “force a failure”, telling the Financial Times that both princes “want to force a failure and then come to the rescue”.
She also insisted that the organisation will “live on” but argued that Prince Harry’s Sussex “brand” and its “toxicity” hindered the charity.
She said: “The number one risk for this organisation was the toxicity of its lead patron’s brand”.
Elsewhere, she claimed that the way the charity had been set up in 2006 was “no longer appropriate in 2023”, explaining: “Funders were asking for locally led initiatives.”
The Duke of Sussex has been contacted for comment.
On Tuesday, a “truly heartbroken” Prince Harry and Prince Seeiso said they backed those who left and have therefore resigned as patrons until further notice.
They said in a joint statement: “These trustees acted in the best interest of the charity in asking the chair to step down, while keeping the wellbeing of staff in mind. In turn, she sued the charity to remain in this voluntary position, further underscoring the broken relationship.
“We thank all the trustees for their service over the years and are truly heartbroken they’ve had to follow through with this act.
“What’s transpired is unthinkable. We are in shock that we have to do this, but we have a continued responsibility to Sentebale’s beneficiaries, so we will be sharing all of our concerns with the Charity Commission as to how this came about.
“Although we may no longer be patrons, we will always be its founders, and we will never forget what this charity is capable of achieving when it is in the right care.”
A spokesman for Sentebale said it had carried out a “restructuring” of its board as “confirmation of its strategy to redeploy senior roles to be proximate to most of the team and programmes in southern Africa”.
They said: “We can confirm that we are aware of concerns about the governance of Sentebale. We are assessing the issues to determine the appropriate regulatory steps.”
