![]() ![]() The brainchild of Sun City’s founding father, hospitality magnate Sol Kerzner, it mimics Las Vegas’ most luxurious venues. Past and present: Sun City revels in its modern luxury and wild images (left) - but its name was made by the song (right), recorded in 1985 by Artists United Against Apartheid, that held it up as a symbol of oppression I check in to the Palace Of The Lost City – the most recent, and most lavish, of this vast complex’s four hotels. Rather, it has reached out to the planet by ramping up the opulence. One thing is immediately obvious: Since the birth of the ‘Rainbow Nation’ and the end of the boycott, Sun City has not shrunk in the shadow of its notoriety. And 18 years after apartheid’s final collapse, I find myself travelling to Sun City to see how – and whether – this infamous resort has moved with the times. Of course, since Nelson Mandela’s release in 1990, South African politics has been transformed. The song branded the resort onto the world’s conscience, and left Sun City as an emblem of oppression in a country without morality or shame. ![]() Featuring artists including Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, Run DMC and – maybe unsurprisingly – Bono and Bob Geldof, it presented Sun City as a sham: a delusional, grotesque playground for wealthy white South Africans a mirage of decadence amid the disintegrating policies of apartheid. ![]()
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