Fairway Hotel chairman buried in Canada

PIC: A picture of Aneez Sherali Bandali Jaffer, chairman of Fairway Hotel and Spa who died on Saturday from Canada where he had travelled for his son's wedding. (Credit: Eddie Ssejjoba)

DEATH

KAMPALA - Last Tuesday before he left for Canada to attend his son's wedding,  Aneez Sherali Bandali Jaffer, the chairman of Fairway Hotel and Spa, hosted his employees to a dinner where highlights included goat roasting.

He promised a bigger event upon his return but this will never be.

According to the relatives, Aneez, son of the founder of one of the oldest hotels in Uganda died aged 63.

Aneez, died on Saturday in his sleep at family home in Vancouver city, British Colombia.

He was in Canada to attend the wedding of his son Ali Azhar Jaffer (30). Ali was scheduled to tie the knot with his fiancée  on Friday, July 27.

Several friends and relatives from India, Kenya, United Kingdom and Uganda last week  travelled  to Vancouver for the family get-together.

Ali is the managing director of the Fairway hotel, a position he took over from his father, who too replaced Bandali Senior, the founder chairman.

Bandali Senior died in 2014 at the age of 90.

Samson Ombogo, the hotel operations manager said Aneez did not complain of any illness or health complications and left Kampala in a jovial mood together with his wife, Naz Jaffer.

He said on Wednesday, the chairman who was popularly referred to as ‘father' by all his employees, interacted with staff and told everyone he was so happy for his son's wedding.

"He told us that the goat roast feast was just the beginning of the many celebrations to come after the main wedding in Canada," Ombogo said.

Quoting  close family, Ombogo said an emergency medical team that rushed to the home confirmed his death, and associated it to ‘a heart attack while in sleep'.

Fairway Hotel on Kafu Road in Nakasero. Both the Canadian and hotel flags were flying half-mast. (Credit: Eddie Ssejjoba)

Aneez was also brother of Mobina S. B. Jaffer Q.C., a Canadian Senator who represented British Columbia to the Upper House (parliament) for several years and was named one of Canada's Top 100 most powerful women in 2005.

Ombogo, said that whereas Bandali senior's body was flown back in January 2015 and was buried at Islamiyah Cemetery in Kololo, where his wife, Gulbanu Sherali Bandali Jaffer was also buried in 2011, Aneeze will be buried in Canada on Wednesday.

Conforming that the wedding will  take place on Friday, he explained that the family resolved to have only rituals as per their culture at the ceremony where the bride and groom will also say their vows.

Management is also slated to conduct a memorial service at Fairway Hotel along Kafu Road, Nakasero in the second week of August after the bereaved family and friends return to Uganda.

Meanwhile, Management at the hotel  put up a desk at the reception lounge where a condolence book had  placed for mourners to sign. On the same desk are Aneez' s pictures and a flower  bouquet.

At the entrance, the hotel flag is at half-mast in respect of the businessman. 

Chetan Modi, the hotel financial controller said the deceased acted more of a father than a chairman and interacted freely with all workers, including the lower ranked.

"His death has shocked us, he was not sick and left in high spirits after interacting with workers at a mini ceremony, everyone looked forward for his return," Modi said. 

He said that the management were however confident that the son, who had been the managing director for years, would carry on the mantle.

A former politician, Bandali Senior was a member of the Kampala City Council before he was elected Member of Parliament representing Kampala West in 1962.

He also helped to resettle many Indians of the Islamiyas sect who had been expelled from Uganda. He is said to have sponsored 72 children to attain formal education. 

Bandali's father and Aneez's grandfather, Bandali Jaffer came from India in the late 1890s and settled in Kampala from where he traded in cotton and owned a number of cotton ginneries in Luwero, Bombo and other places.