By De Wet Potgieter
Hlumelo Biko, the son of the former managing director of the World Bank, Dr Mamphela Ramphele, and the late Black Consciousness leader Steve Biko, is being sought by an upmarket luxury resort which says he bilked his bill.
A year ago, Biko wined and dined his Moroccan-born wife, Leila Akahloun, at the Sham-wari Townhouse Hotel in Port Elizabeth. They stayed for four days in the exclusive hotel overlooking the Indian Ocean at Summerstrand and then apparently left without paying the hotel bill.
This weekend, a year later, the management of Shamwari says it is still battling to contact Biko to get him to pay his R31 817.50 bill.
The itemised billing lists, among other indulgences, sessions in the spa and drinking sessions that ran to a whopping R3 058.
According to Adrian Gardiner, CEO of the Mantis Group which owns Shamwari, his staff have tried everything to reach Biko.
According to a series of emails between Tania Plakonouris, general manager of Mantis and their lawyers, they could not get hold of Biko on his cellphone and emails were returned unread.
To date the summons could not be served.
Gardiner told The Independent on Saturday this week that Biko "is avoiding us at every turn. We are 'p-ed' off."
Biko married Akahloun in 2006 in a society wedding with guests including Nelson Mandela and his wife, Graca Machel.