Why has Prince Harry resigned from his own charity Sentebale and who is Sophie Chandauka?

In 2006, Prince Harry co-founded the charity Sentebale up in honour of his late mother, Diana, Princess of Wales, it was established to help people in southern Africa living with HIV and Aids. However, he has now announced his resignation following a row between the trustees and the chair of its board.

Prince Harry has resigned alongside Prince Seeiso of Lesotho because “the relationship between the charity’s trustees and the chair of the board broke down beyond repair, creating an untenable situation.”

According to The Times, “In an extraordinary joint statement which is yet to be officially released, Harry and his co-founder Prince Seeiso of Lesotho wrote: “What’s transpired is unthinkable. We are in shock that we have to do this.”

Prince Harry and Prince Seeiso of Lesotho said in a joint statement that “Nearly 20 years ago, we founded Sentebale in honour of our mothers. Sentebale means ‘forget-me-not’ in Sesotho, the local language of Lesotho, and it’s what we’ve always promised for the young people we’ve served through this charity.”

The pair also said: “Today is no different. With heavy hearts, we have resigned from our roles as patrons of the organisation until further notice, in support of and solidarity with the board of trustees who have had to do the same. It is devastating that the relationship between the charity’s trustees and the chair of the board broke down beyond repair, creating an untenable situation.”

Who is Sophie Chandauka?

Sophie Chandauka is a Zimbabwe-born lawyer who was appointed as the new chairman of Sentebale last year. She released a statement which read: “There are people in this world who behave as though they are above the law and mistreat people, and then play the victim card and use the very press they disdain to harm people who have the courage to challenge their conduct.

“Discerning readers will ask themselves: why would the chair of the board report her own trustees to the Charity Commission? Why would the High Court of England and Wales accept her application to hear the matter at all if the case had no merit?

“Well, because beneath all the victim narrative and fiction that has been syndicated to press is the story of a woman who dared to blow the whistle about issues of poor governance, weak executive management, abuse of power, bullying, harassment, misogyny, misogynoir – and the cover-up that ensued.”

Sophie Chanduaka also said: “For me, this is not a vanity project from which I can resign when I am called to account,” and went on to say that “I am an African who has had the privilege of a world-class education and career. I will not be intimidated. I must stand for something. I stand for those other women who do not have the ways and means.”

Sophie Chanduaka said that she will remain as chairman of the board and would not be commenting further on the matter. According to her biography on the Sentebale website, Sophie has worked as Head of Americas Risk Management and Intelligent at Meta, Global COO of Shared Services and Baking Operations at Morgan Stanley and was also Head of Group (legal) at the Virgin Money Group.

In 2021, she received an MBE for extraordinary services to diversity in business and was honoured by HM Queen Elizabeth II.