Prince Harry accused of ‘bullying and harassment at scale’ by head of Sentebale charity he based | EUROtoday

The head of a charity co-founded by Prince Harry has accused the British royal of “bullying and harassment at scale”, after he stop the organisation earlier this week.

Dr Sophie Chandauka mentioned Harry’s “unleashing of the Sussex machine” has damaged the connection between the prince and the 540 individuals who work for the Sentebale charity, the youth-focused organisation based by the Duke of Sussex and Prince Seeiso of Lesotho in 2006.

“The only reason I’m here… is because at some point on Tuesday, Prince Harry authorised the release of a damaging piece of news to the outside world without informing me or my country directors, or my executive director,” Dr Chandauka mentioned on Sky’s Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips.

“And can you imagine what that attack has done for me, on me and the 540 individuals in the Sentebale organisations and their family?

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“That is an example of harassment and bullying at scale.”

Harry and Seeiso resigned as patrons of Sentebale earlier this week in help of the charity’s trustees, who left the organisation following a dispute with Dr Chandauka.

In a press release, they mentioned they left as a result of the connection between the trustees and Dr Chandauka “broke down beyond repair”.

But in Dr Chandauka’s sharp rebuke to the previous patrons, she derided the “unleashing of the Sussex machine”, which she described because the “PR machine that supports Prince Harry’s efforts”, towards the charity and its staff.

When contacted by The IndependentPrince Harry’s representatives declined to formally touch upon Dr Chandauka’s claims. A supply near the previous trustees of the Sentebale charity advised Sky News that Dr Chandauka’s claims have been “completely baseless”.

In an interview with the Financial TimesDr Chandauka additionally criticised Harry for having a “toxic” model, describing it because the “number one risk” the charity confronted.

She accused the princes of eager to “force a failure and then come to the rescue”, and added: “The team is resolved that Sentebele will live on, with or without you.”

Harry and Seeiso co-founded Sentebale in reminiscence of their moms. Princess Diana was killed in a automobile crash in Paris in 1997 and Seeiso’s mom, former queen of Lesotho, died in 2003.

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Sentebale works within the southern African nations of Lesotho and Botswana and was began to assist younger individuals affected by Aids after Harry spent a part of a spot 12 months in 2004 working at an orphanage in Lesotho for youngsters whose mother and father died of the illness.

Dr Chandauka, a Zimbabwe-born and London-trained lawyer who served on the charity’s board of trustees between 2008 and 2014, was appointed chair in 2023.

Over the previous 12 months, she mentioned, her relationship with Sentebale’s trustees and patrons has deteriorated as she moved to shift decision-making inside the charity in the direction of its leaders in southern Africa.

The organisation’s type was “no longer appropriate in 2023 in a post-Black Lives Matter world”, she mentioned, as a result of funders have been “asking for locally-led initiatives”.

The UK-based board started to really feel “a loss of power and control and influence … oh my goodness, the Africans are taking over”, Dr Chandauka added.

In a press release earlier this week which gave the impression to be focused on the patrons, Dr Chandauka mentioned: “There are individuals on this world who behave as if they’re above the legislation and mistreat individuals, after which play the sufferer card and use the very press they disdain to hurt individuals who have the braveness to problem their conduct.

“Beneath all of the sufferer narrative and fiction that has been syndicated to the press is the story of a lady who dared to blow the whistle about problems with poor governance, weak government administration, abuse of energy, bullying, harassment, misogyny, misogynoir – and the cover-up that ensued.”