Prince Harry announced on March 25 that he had resigned as a Sentebale boss, the charitable organization he co -founded in memory of his mother, after a one -month dispute between the chairman of the charitable organization and the board of directors broke.
Harry and his co-founder colleague, Prince Seeiso of Lesotho, said they had resigned from solidarity with five members of the board of directors who had resigned from a dispute with the chair, Sophie Chandauka.
Ms. Chandauka and the group of former trustees have both made allegations of reprehensible acts, and the two parties declared that they have submitted complaints and evidence of their arguments to the British Charity Commission.
Here’s what we know.
Why did Prince Harry have resigned from the charitable organization?
Harry founded the charitable organization with Prince Seeiso in 2006. In recent months, the organization’s management has been in Loggerheads. The five administrators who resigned – Timothy Boucher, Mark Dyer, Audrey Kgosidintsi, Kelello Lerotholi and Damian West – said in a joint statement that they had called the chairman of the board of directors, Ms. Chandauka, to resign from her position, after having lost the “confidence” of the board of directors.
They said that Ms. Chandauka, who had been appointed in 2023, had responded by depositing a prosecution in Great Britain “to prevent us from voting it” and that they resign to avoid withdrawing the charity with the cost of the prosecution.
“We could not in all conscience allow Sentebale to undertake this legal and financial burden and we did not be without any other option than to leave our posts,” said the former trust in their declaration. “It was not a glad choice, but rather something that we felt forced to take care of the charity.”
Prince Harry and the Prince saw themselves in their declaration that the former administrators had “acted in the best interest of the charity to ask the chair to resign”. They added: “What happened is unthinkable. We are in shock that we must do, but we have a continuous responsibility towards the beneficiaries of Sentebale, we will therefore share all our concerns with the Charitable Commission on the way it happened.”
What are the accusations of Ms. Chandauka against the former administrators and Prince Harry?
Ms. Chandauka said in a press release on the former administrators she had acted to explain what she described as “questions of bad governance, weak executive management, abuses of power, intimidation, harassment, misogyny, misogymoir and the concealment that followed.” (Misogynoir is a term referring to pointed sexism towards black women.) In addition to depositing a case in English court, she said, she had pointed out the trustees to the British charity commission.
After the five administrators resigned, Ms. Chandauka immediately appointed four new administrators.
In interviews with the British media, Ms. Chandauka has since accused the prince of engaging in harassment and intimidation to try to force her to get her out of her post. A Harry spokesperson refused to comment on his latest claims.
Despite her allegations, Ms. Chandauka said her relationship with Harry had been “fantastic, in fact”. But she said: “There are people on the board of directors who thought they could imply with a woman.”
What is Sentebale?
Harry established Sentebale with Prince Seeiso, the younger brother of King Letsie III of Lesotho, in 2006. Founded in honor of the mother of Harry, Diana, princess of Wales, and the mother of Seeiso, the charity organization raised funds for the communities affected by the Pandemic of HIV in Lesotho, a little kingdom without coast poor from the world. In 2019, he extended his work to neighboring Botswana and the fight against drug addiction, sexist violence and other social ills among young people.
What happens next?
The two parties filed allegations of reprehensible acts with the British charity committee, which regulates charity organizations in England and Wales. Although Sentebale operates in southern Africa, it is recorded in Great Britain.
A spokesperson for the charity said that the regulator “assesses the problems to determine the appropriate regulatory stages”.
