Peermont hotel group plans to relocate gambling license of Mmabatho Palms hotel and casino

South African Commercial Catering and Allied Workers Union (Saccawu) has slammed the Peermont Group’s plan to transfer its gambling license from the Mahikeng based Mmabatho Palms Hotel, to Rustenburg.

Peermont has already applied to the North West Board for its gambling business to be transferred. The request comes just five months after the Mmabatho Palms Hotel and Casino was destroyed by fire.

In September last year part of the flagship Mmabatho Palms Hotel was destroyed by a fire. It has now emerged that the casino may never operate in Mahikeng again.

VIDEO: Mmabatho Palms gutted by fire:

The Bokone Bophirima Business Forum says removing the gambling license of the Mmabatho Palms Hotel will cripple Mahikeng’s economy.

“We are not surprised about the decision they have taken. It’s like they are stripping away the economic potential of the capital city. So we are asking ourselves as to how is it going to affect the workers, why are they moving the license to Rustenburg. I mean if they are doing that it will be the end of us here in Mahikeng. Already things are bad so it will be the end of us,” says Katlego Rakuba, spokesperson of the Bokone Bophirima Business Forum.

The North West Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s Nick Setsetse also slammed the decision.

“Only examples have been made in the past Molopo Sun lost their license and we all know what happened to Molopo Sun, it turned out into a white elephant so to speak. It turned into some student accommodation and I forsee that hotel unfortunately going the same route. If people are going to be shoving and pushing, wake up one evening and they want remove a license to a place that is already developed, much more developed than Mafikeng is, it defies logic,” says Nick Setsetse.

The Peermont Group confirmed that it applied for its gambling license to be transferred from the Mmabatho Palms Hotel in Mahikeng – to a destination near the Waterfall Mall in Rustenburg.

However, the group says it will continue with conference, food and beverage operations at Mmabatho Palms.

“The staff employed at Mmabatho palms will have the first right of refusal to positions available at the Waterfall hotel and casino. The staff members employed at Mmabatho Palms who do not wish to relocate to Rustenburg will be accommodated at the remaining operations of Mmabatho Palms as much as this is possible. The majority of the remaining vacant positions will be recruited for within Peermont and with Rustenburg,” Nikki Evans explains.

Be that as it may, the Saccawu have slammed the decision all together.

“They only received SMS’s last week Thursday. Now in such a very serious business there is nowhere where you can inform an employee through SMS. T. Therefore we are saying we are not confident as to some of the workers that have been spread across and what will happen to those workers who go to Rustenburg. Because if you are in a casino and you are in Mafikeng, if they want to relocate you completely your life is going to change,” Saccawu’s Angie Phetlhe.

Meanwhile, Police say their Preliminary Forensic Fire Scene Investigation Report found electrical malfunction as the most probable cause of the fire that gutted Mmabatho Palms last September.