The only physical mementoes Gopal “Dickie” Naidoo has after more than 50 years spent as a head porter for the Southern Sun hotel group are a few dog-eared black and white photographs, and a clutch of certificates for outstanding performance. His treasure chest of memories, however, overflows with clear-cut recollections. He is not a wealthy man, but he feels rich as he recounts his experiences as one of Sun King Sol Kerzner’s men.
Naidoo, 73, was just 16 when he went to work as a page boy at Durban’s Edenroc Hotel.
“It was November 29, 1954,” he said, his eyes looking inward to the skinny boy from Merebank who needed to leave school early and find work to help feed his family.
“My brother, Sunny, was head chef at the Edward Hotel then. It was the only five-star hotel in Durban at the time, and I got the job on his recommendation. I wore a uniform with braid down the side, a pillbox cap and spotless white gloves. Rules were strict and you could lose your job if you came in the front entrance, rather than the staff entrance at the rear of the hotel. I got up at 3.30am every morning to reach work by six, and worked until 10pm. There were no shifts in those days.”
Naidoo gave the job his all, and was soon spotted by the Kerzner family, who had purchased the Astra Hotel in Russell Street, and upgraded it to a fine establishment.
“Old Mrs Kerzner was such a special lady,” he said with affection. “I lift my hands up to them. She would call me into the kitchen and say: ‘Here’s a plate of food. Come back for more. Don’t be shy, hey. If your tummy is empty you can’t work.’
“I was a really scrawny chicken then.”
Alternating between the Astra and the Menorah block of old age flats owned by Kerzner sister Joyce Wohlman, Naidoo became a favourite with the family. When Sol Kerzner decided to lure the well-heeled to undeveloped Umhlanga, building the luxurious Beverly Hills Hotel in 1964, Naidoo was the logical choice as head porter and general factotum.
“Umhlanga Rocks was bush at the time,” he recalled. “It used to take 15 minutes for the telephone operator to connect you to Durban. It drove Mr Kerzner crazy. He wanted to take the whole town to the next level.
“There was no public transport then, only one bus a day to Umhlanga, so he used to send a driver to collect us at St Aidans at 5.30am. He would send us sandwiches and tea with the driver, prepared at the Astra. Just 10 of us opened that place, and the hours were very long, but Mr Kerzner always paid well. Boy, he was strict with the builders. He gave them his deadline, and they had to finish construction by then, even if they worked through the night.
“He was a one-man band in those days, before he established the Southern Sun group with Gordon Hood.”
Naidoo was finding it difficult to commute from his Merebank home to Umhlanga, but when he reluctantly told Kerzner he was going to tender his resignation, he refused to hear of it, and gave him a healthy salary increase. “I can’t let you go, Dickie,” he said. “You are like part of the family.”
So close was Naidoo to the clan that it was often he who would carry a sleepy young Howard (Butch) Kerzner into the hotel when Kerzner and his first wife, Maureen, returned from an outing with their three children. “Such a sweet boy he was,” said Naidoo. “I was very sad when I heard he died in a helicopter crash.”
The head porter was also fond of Kerzner’s second wife, KZN-born Shirley Bestbier, who caught the boss’s eye when she worked as a receptionist at the Elangeni, to which Naidoo was later transferred.
“What a lovely, warm person she was,” he said. “She never changed towards us after she married Mr Kerzner. After she died her sister helped look after their two small children. And then there was Miss World (Anneline Kriel). She was more aloof, but more beautiful in person than in any of her pictures. We didn’t see so much of her and she kept more to herself.”
It is clear Naidoo has huge admiration for his former employer. “When he built the Elangeni in 1971, he sent pamphlets to all the old retired people who lived in that area, asking them to come and have tea and scones before the official opening. He was such a fair and understanding man. When staff had problems, he would say: ‘My door is open. Let’s talk.’”
Kerzner had a quick temper, said Naidoo, but also quickly forgave.
“He and the head chef, ‘Cheese’, used to have these huge arguments, but then Mr Kerzner would arrive early in the morning, and he’d be helping Cheese to prepare hors d’oeuvres in the kitchen, and they’d be the best of friends again.”
The list of guests given Naidoo’s special treatment reads like a global “Who’s Who”, and there was virtually no famous South African who did not stay at the Elangeni during his tenure, including magnates and prime ministers
“Mr Harry Oppenheimer was a real gentleman, and a great tipper,” he said. “When he came to stay with his wife I would carry his coat and hat, and when he left, he would press a R20 note into my hand. That was big money then.”
Having grown up on a steady diet of Western movies, Naidoo was bowled over when Robert Mitchum booked in. “He had an argument in the foyer with a reporter, and I think he even knocked him down, but he then invited him to his suite for a double whisky, and the reporter got very happy, and all was forgiven.”
By his own admission, Naidoo is “part of the furniture” at the Elangeni, where he spent almost four decades. “They call me back when it gets really busy. I spent three weeks working here again this Christmas.
“After so many years I am programmed to wake up at 3.30am. There’s work to be done and I am happy to do it.” - Sunday Tribune