Prince Harry's former charity Sentebale slashes UK staff to just ONE amid donations collapse and toxic infighting
Sentebale, an HIV /Aids awareness charity, was plunged into crisis earlier this year following a very public feud between the Duke of Sussex and the charity's chairwoman Dr Sophie Chandauka.
Four of the five employees based in the organisation's London office have now been made redundant, including its global head of finance and compliance, the Times reports.
Last night Sentebale confirmed to the Daily Mail that there is now only one full-time staff member operating at its UK headquarters.
They added that 'between April and September there will be a total of seven departures across three locations'.
A redundancy letter, sent to staff in April and seen by The Times, stated that the group 'does not have' donor funding and that it is in 'retrenchment'.
Harry set up Sentebale with Prince Seeiso of Lesotho in 2006 to work with disadvantaged young people in Lesotho and Botswana, with both men honouring their late mothers.
But the pair stepped away from the charity this month following a damning report into an explosive race row sparked by Dr Chandauka.
The UK Charity Commission had launched a probe into the acrimonious boardroom battle - but criticised both sides in its findings.
The probe said it could find 'no evidence' of 'widespread or systemic bullying or harassment, including misogyny or misogynoir' at Sentebale after Dr Chandauka made a series of incendiary allegations about the behaviour of the Duke of Sussex and his fellow trustees.
But it also criticised the trustees, who included Harry, who resigned en masse in March after the row was made public.
Scores of donors - loyal to the Duke and Duchess of Sussex - allegedly stopped donating to the charity, costing hundreds of thousands of pounds in essential funding.
The watchdog acknowledged the 'strong perception of ill treatment' felt by all parties, including Dr Chandauka, and the impact this may have had on them. It ruled that failures leading up to, and following, the dispute had led to 'mismanagement in the administration of the charity'.
A Sentebale spokesperson said the charity had 'suffered from the negative impact of the adverse media campaign launched by the duke and former trustees on 25 March'.
In a sign the two parties remain deeply entrenched, they added that this was as a result of the Charity Commission probe 'which has made fundraising extremely challenging for Sentebale and so we have been reliant on reserves'.
The spokesperson told the Daily Mail: 'First discussed in 2024, the Sentebale Board took a deliberate and responsible step to right-size its workforce in all three locations due to increasing uncertainty relating to international donor funding such as USAID and uncertainty relating to events such as polo.'
The Senetable Polo Cup - which historically raised around £740,000 a year - has not taken place for the last two years.
The spokesperson added: 'The global restructuring was intended to improve efficiencies, transition senior executive roles to Southern Africa and to respond to changing service delivery demands.
'False is the notion that any restructuring was because of a 'funding crisis', but was a planned restructuring.'
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