Prince Harry steps down from charity after ‘unthinkable’ controversy
Prince Harry co-founded Sentebale in 2006 but has now stepped down following a controversy that emerged.

Prince Harry quits as patron of African charity he set up in 2006

Prince Harry has stepped down from a charity he founded 19 years ago after an “unthinkable” controversy. The Duke of Sussex and Prince Seeiso of Lesotho co-founded Sentebale, which helps African orphans and tackles poverty and AIDS in Lesotho and Botswana, in 2006.

It was founded in honour of his late mother, Princess Diana. But several trustees demanded that Dr Sophie Chandauka, the chairwoman of the board, 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 – forcing those trustees to quit themselves in protest.

A “truly heartbroken” Duke 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.

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“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.”

Former trustees Timothy Boucher, Mark Dyer, Audrey Kgosidintsi, Kelello Lerotholi and Damian West said in a statement: “As a group of British and African trustees, we have made the difficult decision to unanimously resign as board members of Sentebale.

“I think there have many allegations of bullying and abuse within the Charity which Harry has been aware of for some time yet has not responded to …” 84
“Hey?? I have absolutely no idea what that article was about?? Made no sense what so …” 82
“He can still earn for the charity. He is rich so why not give them a million, he wont …” 51

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“We are deeply proud to have supported the visionary work of the founding patrons Prince Seeiso and Prince Harry, who founded Sentebale in memory of their mothers. For two decades, Sentebale has championed hundreds of thousands of children and young people, providing them with care, training and life skills, which not only benefit each individual child they support but their families and their communities as a whole.

“Today’s decision is nothing short of devastating for all of us, but we see no other path forward as the result of our loss in trust and confidence in the chair of the board.”

According to The Times, the charity is now the subject of a Charity Commission investigation.

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.”