SAFFAS JOIN THE DONALD'S BANKS
SOUTH Africans are rolling up their sleeves to keep the champagne and caviar flowing at an extravagant private resort that is home to US Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.
Mar-a-Lago is a historic 126-room mansion set on 8ha of manicured lawns and landscaped gardens in Palm Beach, Florida.
Trump purchased the estate in 1985 as a winter home, restored the property and threw its doors open a decade later as “one of the world’s most sought-after private clubs”, featuring a Louis XIV-style ballroom with R102-million worth of gold leaf adorning its walls and 12m ceilings.
Within the ranks of a small army of groundsmen, chefs, waitresses, housekeepers and support staff who keep the estate running are the likes of Mduduzi Khoza, who studied marketing at Durban University of Technology, and Daphne Burt, who used to work as a barista at a Fruit & Veg City store in Cape Town.
Trump’s longtime butler, 74-yearold Anthony Senecal, said during a candid interview with the New York Times last month that “a lot” of South Africans worked at the estate.
A request to The Trump Organisation by the Sunday Times to interview them was declined.
But a social media trawl unearthed several South Africans employed at the estate in catering, reservations and reception positions who hail from KwaZulu-Natal and Western Cape.
South Africans working at the estate include Danielle Steyn from KwaZulu-Natal, Chiquita Botha from Cape Town and Domonique Boshoff from Gansbaai.
Natashia Bouch is among a group of South Africans recruited, via Petrina Group International, to work at Mar-a-Lago. “I’m in USA got work through PGI. I’m at Mar-a-Lago club . . . doing season work,” said the former Amanzimtoti High School pupil on her public Facebook page. Petrina Group International did not respond to e-mailed questions.
Senecal gave a rare insight during the interview into the quirks and perils faced by staff at the 90-yearold property.
“You can always tell when the king is here,” he told the New York Times. Trump insisted, he added, on doing his own hair despite having a salon on the premises.
Senecal is often greeted by “the king” at dawn, casually dressed in a golf shirt and cap. A white cap meant he was in a good mood. A red cap served as a warning to stay away.
Trump, however, was also compassionate and generous, sometimes handing $100 bills to staff from a wad in his pocket, said Senecal.
The billionaire earns more than R200-million a year by charging hefty fees to club members and hiring the venue out for events and weddings, while retaining a section as a private retreat for himself, his wife, Melania, and their son, Barron.
Foreign employees at Mar-a-Lago have become a hot potato for Trump. His campaign to become the most powerful man in the US has promised voters that he would restore jobs occupied by immigrants to Americans.
But earlier this year, the New York Times revealed of the nearly 300 US residents who applied for jobs as waiters, cooks and housekeepers at Mar-a-Lago, just 17 were hired. Most spots were filled by temporary, foreign workers. Mar-a-Lago had sought more than 500 visas for foreign workers since 2010, the newspaper reported.
US companies are allowed to hire foreign workers on a temporary basis, provided local workers are not available to fill the posts.
“There are a lot of Romanians, there are a lot of South Africans, we have one Irishman,” said Senecal.
Irish hospitality and events professional Conaire Quigley, who works at the estate, did not reply to an e-mail about his co-workers from South Africa.
Explaining that locals shunned short-term seasonal jobs, which often exclude tips to staff at private clubs, Senecal had nothing but praise for his foreign colleagues.
“They’re so good. They are so professional,” he said.
❛ There are a lot of Romanians, there are a lot of South Africans