A trip through time as Ritz Hotel changes hands

IT WAS the '80s, just before Nelson Mandela was released from prison, close to the time of PW Botha's Rubicon speech, and about a decade before South Africa held its first democratic elections.

- VIVIAN WARBY

Despite what it looked like on the outside, the wheels were moving, and the country was on its way to freedom.

The Ritz Hotel Cape Town - a building from the '70s-still had all its glitz, a 'to-die-for' penthouse and some murder and mayhem.

And Brian van Hansen was on piano.

The restaurant was revolving and it was the talk of the town.

Guests, dressed up, still smoked cigarettes and cigars indoors, and dined amid flickering candles, tuxedos and silky gowns at the Top of the Ritz, the name of the revolving restaurant where desserts flambéed dramatically at tables, recalls Van Hansen.

It was all high-end, plush and - of course it was the '80s so there was a bit of kitsch, he recalls.

"Everyone wanted to go to the Top of the Ritz. It was the place to see and be seen. In advertising they used the fact that they had a resident pianist to attract visitors. They were great days," says Van Hansen.

Today, the Ritz is a far cry from the days Van Hansen remembers.

It sits empty now, a Titanic of sorts in Sea Point. The building was condemned in 2022 after it was taken over by building hijackers including alleged drug dealers and sex workers during Covid. The hijackers were evicted a few years back after a long and arduous legal battle. Not the first legal battle the previous owners have had to fight.

Now the only candles seen flickering at the hotel, say surrounding neighbours, are those of the odd unwanted guest who manages to slip past security and make the hotel their home for the night in a city hit by a low-cost housing crisis.

This week, Spanish OKU Hotels - known to be one of the trendiest hotel groups internationally - signed the deal to buy the Ritz. It has its headquarters in Ibiza, Spain.