Enterprise Africa April 2022

AFRICA

THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE FOR AFRICA’S INDUSTRY LEADERS

April 2022

www.enterprise-africa.net

Success from Sustainability at Sibanye-Stillwater Exclusive interview with James Wellsted, Senior Vice President: Investor Relations

ALSO IN THIS ISSUE:

Mowana Properties / BidTravel / Zuid-Afrikaans Hospital / CIPC

Backed up by almost 100 years of experience, with a track record that defined and shaped our pedigree on the South African retail property landscape, comes a fresh and innovative asset and property management company – Mowana Properties.

We are committed to serving our customers by providing innovative and pro-active property solutions. Contact us and find out how we can ensure the continued growth of your business.

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EDITOR’S LETTER

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EDITOR Joe Forshaw  joe@enterprise-africa.co.za SENIOR PROJECT MANAGER Sam Hendricks  sam@enterprise-africa.co.za SENIOR PROJECT MANAGER James Davey  jamesd@enterprise-africa.co.za PROJECT MANAGER Chris Wright  chrisw@enterprise-africa.co.za PROJECT MANAGER Ekwa Bikaka  ekwa@enterprise-africa.co.za PROJECT MANAGER Christina Allcock  christina@enterprise-africa.co.za PROJECT MANAGER Eleanor Sarbutt-King  eleanor@enterprise-africa.co.za PROJECT MANAGER Leanna Lucas  leanna@enterprise-africa.co.za PROJECT MANAGER Oliver Skipper  oliver@enterprise-africa.net SENIOR DESIGNER Liam Woodbine  liam@enterprise-africa.co.za FINANCE MANAGER Paige Atkins  Paige@enterprise-africa.co.za CONTRIBUTOR CONTRIBUTOR CONTRIBUTOR CONTRIBUTOR

Manelesi Dumasi Timothy Reeder Benjamin Southwold William Denstone

South Africa’s credit rating was upgraded by Moody’s from negative to stable and the Rand found relative strength through March. International tourists are arriving once again with Cape Town frequently highlighted in international press as one of the world’s preeminent holiday destinations. The National State of Disaster has finally come to an end. There is an air of positivity for those that want it.

Of course, the longstanding challenges remain, but government seem upbeat having achieved much of an ambitious investment drive. Now, it seems, is the time to plan for growth.

Corporate and leisure travel business BidTravel is hiring again and CEO Lidia de Olim Folli sat down with Enterprise Africa in a London hotel to explain her delight that tourism was rebounding.

Portuguese restaurant chain Adega has been refreshed and rebranded and is enjoying success as it begins a journey through franchising. Director, Victor Graca is excited.

Sibanye-Stillwater is making moves as it acquires to get deeper into PGMs and aid the green economy. Senior Vice President Investor Relations, James Wellsted explains more about ongoing growth in times of uncertainty.

Mowana Properties, the property management company behind large Pareto and IPC funds, is continuing to drive transformation and adopt technology. MD Samuel Ramuhashi tells us more about opening up the industry for young, black professionals to thrive.

Everyone is looking forward with hope and ambition, and everyone is now seasoned operating through tough times. 2022 continues to bring positivity.

Get in touch and tell us more about how your company is developing an optimistic mindset and looking forward with ambition. We’re online through LinkedIn.

Published by Chris Bolderstone – General Manager E. chris@cmb-media.co.uk Fuel Studios, Kiln House, Pottergate, Norwich NR2 1DX

Joe Forshaw

EDITOR

+44 (0) 1603 855 161 E. info@cmb-media.co.uk www.cmb-media.co.uk CMB Media Group does not accept responsibility for omissions or errors. The points of view expressed in articles by attributing writers and/ or in advertisements included in this magazine do not necessarily represent those of the publisher.

Whilst every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of the information contained within this magazine, no legal responsibility will be accepted by the publishers for loss arising from use of information published. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or stored in a retrievable system or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior written consent of the publisher. © CMB Media Group Ltd 2022

GET IN TOUCH  +44 (0) 1603 855 161  joe@enterprise-africa.co.za www.enterprise-africa.net

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SIBANYE-STILLWATER Success from Sustainability at Sibanye-Stillwater CIPC Innovating and Improving to Support Enterprise and Growth ICE TECH Digital Transformations Bridge Gaps Across the Continent ZUID-AFRIKAANS HOSPITAL A Magnet for First-Class Service and Personal Care NETCARE Person-Centred Care with a Sustainable Heart BIDTRAVEL SA Tourism Lives Again MOWANA PROPERTIES Deep Roots Provide Great Growth for Mowana

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CONTENTS

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SACAP Innovative Education for a Better, Happier World ADEGA Seasoned Team Relaunches Adega NANDO’S SOUTH AFRICA Nandocas Always at the Heart of Champion Food Operation DW FRESH PRODUCE The Value of Produce Fresh from the Farm LETŠENG DIAMONDS Presiding Over a Kingdom of Gems CURO FUND SERVICES Future-Focussed Finance Digitisation DBSA Igniting Sustainable Development and Transformative Change www.enterprise-africa.net / 5

SIBANYE-STILLWATER

Success from Sustainability

at Sibanye-Stillwater PRODUCTION: Eleanor Sarbutt-King

Repositioning a company with deep South African mining heritage, to focus on battery metals, and the green and recycling economies is the current task for management at Sibanye-Stillwater. James Wellsted, Senior Vice President: Investor Relations talks to Enterprise Africa about progress.

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Stillwater valley at our US PGM operations

INDUSTRY FOCUS: MINING

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Sibanye-Stillwater is emerging from the years of pandemic and economic turmoil in solid shape following a period of strong acquisitive activity, and a focus on efficiencies. In terms of financial results, this powerhouse has delivered record financial results while continuing to transform its operations, putting sustainability at the core of everything it does.

Since 2020, the company has continued to grow and diversify, acquiring various operations globally, expanding the portfolio to realign its drive for sustainability by producing battery metals and participating in the circular economy.

The company acquired the Sandouville nickel hydrometallurgical processing facility in France, which is now fully owned by SibanyeStillwater alongside a proposed 50/50 joint-venture with ioneer to develop the Rhyolite Ridge Lithium-Boron Project in the USA. Finally it acquired a 19.9% stake in a leading Australian tailings retreatment business, New Century Resources. During 2022, a transaction with Anglo American Platinum was announced which will result in the Kroondal platinum mine in Rustenburg being fully owned by Sibanye-Stillwater.

The strategic shift is obvious.

From its origin as a leading gold mining producer, Sibanye-Stillwater has diversified its portfolio, becoming a leading global PGM producer and now entering the battery metals sector, establishing a portfolio of metals that will be necessary for the transition to greener energy and industries of the future.

James Wellsted, Senior Vice President: Investor Relations at Sibanye-Stillwater, tells Enterprise Africa that the acquisitions came at a good time, and while most struggled with the impact from Covid, SibanyeStillwater was looking forward.

“We have grown significantly, largely through acquisitions in recent

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// GIVEN THE FACT THAT WE HAD INHERITED QUITE MATURE MINES WITH LIMITED OPERATING LIFE, WE NEEDED TO LOOK FOR ALTERNATIVE MINES TO GROW THE BUSINESS // years and this momentum continued last year. We announced five transactions of which one fell through, and we would like to grow our battery metal portfolio further,” he says.

Kroondal was another transaction of importance, doubling the life of the mine to 2029 and creating significant shared value. Completion of this deal was hailed by SibanyeStillwater CEO Neal Froneman, who said benefits for stakeholders would be significant: “This will accelerate the extraction of more remote parts of the Rustenburg operation orebody, sustain employment for more than 2,500 people until 2029, and ensure the creation of significant value for all stakeholders in the region.”

“It was our first PGM acquisition in 2016,” adds Wellsted, “but the way the business was structured was a 50/50 profit share with Anglo Platinum.

They still own half until now, but post 2024 we will take full ownership. It is a sensible transaction from a value perspective as it will extend the life of the business, create jobs, have

benefits for other stakeholders, while bringing forward a lot of value for our company and Anglo Platinum.”

MINERAL DIVERSIFICATION Sibanye-Stillwater was formed through the unbundling of three mature South African gold mines by Gold Fields in 2013, and listed separately.

“Given the fact that we had inherited quite mature mines, we needed to grow the business to ensure sustainability and risk diversification.

Opportunities in the gold space were limited and the environment competitive resulting in elevated prices, with limited value evident so we started looking for alternative growth options and identified that the PGM industry offered significant value and with a lot of similarities to the South African gold industry, offered significant opportunity to unlock value by consolidating different operations and realising synergies, much like we are doing with Kroondal right now. In 2016, we made our first acquisitions and by mid-2019 we had concluded

SIBANYE-STILLWATER

four significant transactions to become one of the biggest PGM producers in the world with one of the leading global PGM recycling businesses,” explains Wellsted.

Sibanye-Stillwater quickly turned around its inherited, mature gold mines during 2013 and 2014 establishing its position as a leading dividend paying company, averaging a dividend yields of around 5% for the first four years. This helped to differentiate the company from its gold mining peers with the robust cash flows driving growth in the PGM sector.

“That has been an incredibly successful strategy” Wellsted says, “but we have started to look for other opportunities to grow the business and enhance its sustainability outside of the PGM space, where due to our size, we have limited growth opportunities.

We already have a meaningful presence in the green economy through our PGMs which are used in cars to clean noxious gases that come from internal combustion engines and will play an important role in the future hydrogen economy. We are expanding that positioning with green metals – that is lithium, copper, nickel, and also growing our exposure to the circular economy - becoming a force for good around climate change. We have stakes in tailings retreatment companies in SA and Australia. There is a lot of opportunity to expand this portfolio at the moment.”

This opportunity is being realised as the company as it posted strong results for the year ended 31 December 2021. Headline earnings for the year increased by 27% to R36.9

// IT WAS A FUNCTION OF THE GROWTH THAT WE HAVE SEEN, AND THE GOOD TIMING OF OUR ACQUISITIONS // www.enterprise-africa.net / 9

INDUSTRY FOCUS: MINING

Water monitoring at one of the SA operation’s water plants

Biomonitoring in the pristine environment surrounding our UG PGM operations

billion. Profit attributable to owners of Sibanye-Stillwater increased by 13% to R33.1 billion. A 19% increase in net cashflow from operating activities was recorded, and a strong balance sheet was displayed with net cash increasing further to R11.5 billion on 31 December 2021. A record financial performance also showed revenue of R172.2 billion, up 35% on 2020.

Asked about the key to these robust results, Wellsted highlights several intertwined factors.

“It was a function of the growth that we have seen, and the good timing of our acquisitions and the integration of those acquisitions where we have been able to unlock a lot of value by realising synergies, saving costs, and improving efficiencies. We also acquired at a low point in the precious metals cycle, and

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we are now benefitting from much better operational performance and higher prices.”

MANAGED THROUGH Sibanye-Stillwater quickly developed and implemented effective health a safety protocols as the Covid-19 pandemic swept through the country.

Being by far the number one priority in the mining industry, the health and safety of people comes naturally to those planning processes.

“Our efforts to reduce the risk of the Covid-19 pandemic in the workplace have met with significant success over the course of the last two years,” said Neal Froneman.

As of 27 February 2022, 53,000 employees and 12,000 contractors at SA operations were fully vaccinated, equating to 83% of the company’s SA

workforce. 88% had received at least one dose of the vaccine.

Wellsted praises the company’s nimble approach and ability to shift quickly despite its mammoth size.

“We took quick steps in the beginning,” he says. “We came up with, developed, and implemented processes across our operations – preparing quarantine and isolation facilities, setting up testing centres, sourcing the necessary protective equipment, constant sanitising and cleaning, implementing social distancing. At the start of 2020, the government shut down all industry in the country and we were impacted by that. But the mining industry - because of its long history having to deal with issues around TB and HIV and the general intense focus on health and safety – became the first industry allowed to resume operations.”

SIBANYE-STILLWATER

He adds that it took the final three full quarters of 2020 to back to a normal operating position, and that 2021 played out with minimal disruption.

“We offered a lot of support to communities. The quarantine facilities that we set up were with the intent of relieving some of the pressure on state facilities. We offered a lot of support financially and we also offered counselling through the lockdowns,” Wellsted says.

GREEN & CIRCULAR In the future, Sibanye-Stillwater is looking to continue delivering operational excellence while bolstering its green credentials through acquiring assets that produce metals required in the global energy transition, and improving its own processes.

Wellsted - a geologist by training with experience across finance and investments – says that the company has identified a clear strategy that gravitates around a circular, green economy.

“It’s all about growing the battery metals business,” he enthuses.

“We see our opportunities in this clear shift towards a greener approach to business and a focus on all stakeholders and not just shareholders. We want to become climate resilient and we want to be part of the new green economy by impacting the climate in a positive way rather than contributing to climate change.

“The metals we will produce will actually benefit the climate over the longer-term,” he concludes. “These metals clean exhaust fumes and go into batteries and fuel cells which

will store and generate clean energy.

The circular economy and recycling will become a bigger part of what we do, and we want to become a bigger part of those overall energy and environmental solutions rather than being perceived as a problem, which is how the mining industry has been viewed for a long time.”

Well-positioned to deliver on its purpose of improving lives through mining, Sibanye-Stillwater is ensuring this will carry on into the future as it continues to build as a responsible, sustainable, transparent, and forwardthinking business.

WWW.SIBANYESTILLWATER.COM

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CIPC

Innovating and Improving

to Support Enterprise and Growth PRODUCTION: Oliver Skipper

Established by the Companies Act 2008, the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission (CIPC) is a vital agency of the Department of Trade and Industry in South Africa, coming into effect in May 2011. A dual office integral to the registration of companies, co-operatives, and intellectual property rights, CIPC seamlessly transitioned to not only maintain but improve standards and turnaround times as the pandemic took hold, with a policy of ceaseless innovation at the core of its efficacy.

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INDUSTRY FOCUS: GOVERNMENT

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While they may not necessarily even be aware of it, every individual who has registered a company name in South Africa has been dealing with the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission (CIPC) right from the inception of the nascent business.

Created in May 2011 from the merger of Companies and Intellectual Property Registration Office (CIPRO) and the Office of Company and Intellectual Property Enforcement (OCIPE), since its formation CIPC has undergone a sustained and rapid transformation in order to improve its service delivery, and to allow it to now contribute in a most meaningful fashion to South Africa’s overall developmental and economic needs.

A swift metamorphosis has been required, from its baseline as an administrative organisation with little or no regulatory focus, operating an almost exclusively manual, paperbased process at risk of errors and lost documents and reliant upon an outdated and unreliable ICT infrastructure and ICT governance.

CIPC’s great strides have expedited the modernisation of the organisation to bring it in line with, and exceed, current standards.

Upgrading infrastructure and introducing new and improved online services has completely overhauled and remodelled the full scope of processes: from company registration, name reservations, annual returns and director and

// WE HAVE USED DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES AND PARTNERSHIPS TO BECOME A MODERN, WORLD-CLASS REGULATOR OF BUSINESSES AND INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS //

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member changes to financial yearend changes, address changes, as well as trademark, patent, design, and copyright in film applications.

FAR-REACHING REMIT Commissioner Rory Voller informs Enterprise Africa of CIPC’s inception and primary functions, unpacking an institution comprising over 500 staff with an annual budget of around R700 million, as broad and multifaceted as it is complex and intricate. “We have a dual function of registering companies, and registering intellectual property rights,” he delineates firstly. “Beyond the registration of companies, however, I also deal with issues surrounding patents, copyright, trademarks and industrial designs.

“There are still some jurisdictions which have these two registries as separate offices, whereas in South Africa the decision was taken to combine them, coming about as the result of a major amendment to the Companies Act just over a decade

CIPC

ago,” Voller explains. “In South Africa there was a wholesale overhaul of its company law, and which resulted in the implementation of various regulation agencies. One of these was the Companies and Intellectual Properties Commission, previously the Companies and Intellectual Property Registration Office.

“Behind these major changes was a shift away from the office merely being one of an administrative nature, to become a regulator of various pieces of legislation under corporate law and international property law. Beyond the scope of being the registrar of various domains and aspects of corporate law, we are also very much involved and entrenched in the work of improving corporate governance in South Africa, as well as dealing with the effective enforcement of the legislation under our purview.”

CIPC plays a key role in ensuring the integrity of the country’s company registration system, underpinning a growing economy, but this is always

expanding, Voller furthers. “Our regulatory role has evolved to the extent that we are now, too, very much responsible for looking closely at financial reporting standards in the country, by ensuring that we comply with international reporting levels, while reviewing and monitoring compliance with annual financial statements as lodged with us at CIPC.” CIPC’s role’s being twofold gives

it a scope far beyond company registration, Voller is at pains to transmit, across myriad aspects of regulation and enforcement. “We have a heavy involvement in the area of international property enforcement, and play the coordinating role when it comes to dealing with anti-piracy and anti-counterfeiting activities,” he says.

Continues on page 18

www.enterprise-africa.net / 15

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INDUSTRY FOCUS: GOVERNMENT

Continued from page 15 “We bring together enforcement and prosecuting agencies together with the rights holders whenever fake merchandise is being sold or advertised, and also have act in an educational capacity towards prosecuting authorities and the police and customs services. We have established ourselves as a substantial, sizeable public entity within government.”

INNOVATION, AUTOMATION, DIGITISATION While the pandemic wreaked havoc for so many organisations, CIPC found itself ahead of the curve and extremely well-placed to continue in

a fashion as close to normal as could be hoped; it even brought the chance to re-evaluate and institute a number of impactful changes, Voller unravels.

“Some of our most important work is in the space of massive education and awareness activities,” he describes firstly, “and one lasting ramification of the pandemic is that it pushed us into the realm of online webinars, allowing us to reach a far greater spread of people. This is something we now have no intention of deviating away from.

“When the move came towards telecommuting and working from home it was a very smooth adaptation for us, as this was a road down which CIPC had been travelling for many years,” he explains. “We had the

infrastructure already here which staff were accustomed to using every day, which facilitated the move offsite and enabled them to continue seamlessly to register companies and deal effectively with every one of our responsibilities.

“Our enforcement activity took something of a hit during the period,” Voller concedes, “as so much of it is required to be meetingbased, or to bring parties together in mediation and arbitration when dealing with complaints.”

The strain on CIPC’s regulatory role that very much temporary, however, lasting only around six months as it very quickly adapted in typically innovative fashion.

“Our service delivery standards

// OUR SERVICE DELIVERY STANDARDS SURROUNDING THE PROCESSING OF APPLICATIONS WERE UNAFFECTED THROUGHOUT THE PANDEMIC //

Commissioner Rory Voller

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CIPC

surrounding the processing of applications were unaffected throughout,” he states. “We must register a company within one day, for example; we didn’t deviate once from this strict turnaround time.

“It really helped that the majority of our work has been done online for many years,” Voller stresses, “and CIPC is a highly automated environment exemplified by our range of e-services but arguably best by our flagship product BizPortal, one of our major success stories.” Developed by CIPC, the platform is designed to offer company registration and related services in a simple, seamless, and digital way, in response to the quest to improve the ease of starting a business in South Africa.

“It exists to bring together a multitude of services and departments into a single portal so that the entrepreneur is able to start a company and access a gamut of services in a single location,” Voller outlines. “We have also brought in private sector partners, to enable people to apply for business banks accounts, for example, or to access the domain authority of South Africa if starting a website.

“We are proud of the fact that BizPortal was developed entirely in-house,” he continues, “and such has been its success that it has featured on two occasions in state of the nation addresses by the President, in the context of having helped to further the growth and ease of doing business within South Africa, while reducing the bureaucracy and

// CIPC IS A HIGHLY AUTOMATED ENVIRONMENT, EXEMPLIFIED BY OUR FLAGSHIP PRODUCT BIZPORTAL //

SHAPING REGTECH & SUPTECH THROUGH DATA TECHNOLOGY

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red tape by having everything in one place.” The turnaround time of starting a business now averages a startling 15 minutes.

“It has taken us a long time to reach this point, but the whole idea with BizPortal was that functionality would increase year-on-year and it would host an ever-greater breadth of services,” Voller rounds off, with Google SA is the latest to join and offer small business owners access to a range of its own services through the platform.

510,000 new businesses were registered in 2021, the most that has ever been recorded in a single year, so this ethos of innovating wherever every possible element will allow CIPC to deliver even greater efficiencies and service. “I have worked hard to instil a culture of continuous

Data Modelling

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improvement within the organisation,” Voller enthuses, “so pandemic or not, we always look to innovate.”

“We have used digital technologies and partnerships to become a modern, worldclass regulator of businesses and intellectual property rights, and through being agile, adaptive and high-performing we will seek to make an increasingly important strategic contribution towards South Africa’s enterprise, competitiveness and growth.”

WWW.CIPC.CO.ZA

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ICE TECH Digital Transformations Bridge

Gaps Across the Continent PRODUCTION: James Davey

Through the deployment of its class-leading digital transformation platform, ICE Engine, ICE Tech is uniquely placed to expertly revolutionise both customer and citizen experience. With a central focus on digitising government in emerging markets, ICE Tech utilises its technology to elevate its partners in their respective markets, and their processes, into the 21st century, arguably most notably at the continent’s busiest border crossing.

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As quickly as the private sector has raised the bar on the customer experience, as have increased pressure and demands on the government to keep pace.

As a result, digitisation of public services has become an imperative, helping governments meet public expectations and simultaneously become more efficient and resilient.

It is widely known that for an overwhelming majority of residents satisfaction with a public service are far more likely to trust the government overall than those who are not, while further benefits are more tangible. Digital offices,

unlike their physical counterparts, are open to the public 24/7 and able to remain operational during even the unimaginable disruption of the likes the COVID-19 pandemic.

Digital interactions, furthermore, are less time-consuming and can massively reduce the administrative burden on companies. The automation of case handling significantly boosts productivity, meanwhile, as it reduces backlogs and frees up resources for other priorities. This becomes particularly pertinent at present when speed and resilience for delivering critical services such as unemployment or medical benefits are paramount.

AUTOMATION OF EVERYTHING “We are software engineers with a passion for agility,” ICE Tech outlines of a core, expert team with much knowledge around the complete development lifecycle of government information systems. Behind the design and development of its digital transformation platform ICE Engine was first-hand experience of government, and what ICE Tech observed of the need of solutions to be implemented with increasing speed and efficiency.

“Our solutions have enabled government to significantly increase revenue, compliance and ultimately

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INDUSTRY FOCUS: TECHNOLOGY

the citizen experience,” summarises CMO Dimitri Kanellopoulos of the impact of this revolutionary technology. “We recognised that bespoke project-by-project development was too slow and lacked the agility demanded by our customers. ICE Engine had developed beyond its initial mandate as a tool for ICE Tech to use internally, into one applicable to every developer.

“We built ICE Engine to accelerate our development process without compromising functionality.

“Our main objective is to change the citizen experience, through our very own business process automation platform,” Kanellopoulos effuses. “It allows the development of any kind of automation to enable the citizen to be serviced by the government such integral and easily accomplished functions as online ordering of passports, IDs and drivers’ licences,

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as well as more complex utilities billings systems with IoT enablement, for example, and e-wallets and the switching of government funds between ministries and treasury.

We are also able to take care of ticketing and payment for things like national parks, and law enforcement in the form of spot fine payment.

“We are, right now, about to go live with tolls in Mozambique, where there was one toll before, and on top of this our ICE Engine solution operates around 60% of the massive toll network in Zimbabwe,” reveals Kanellopoulos, furthering that one of ICE Tech’s primary areas at present, and where it boasts deep expertise, is in vehicle registration.

“We have completely overhauled and re-engineered the entire process of importing and exporting a car.

It is no longer even necessary to approach the authorities to register

// OUR MAIN OBJECTIVE IS TO CHANGE THE CITIZEN EXPERIENCE // an imported vehicle; the dealer can now do everything themselves.”

All of these intricate and finelytuned processes are accomplished through ICE Tech’s low-code development platform ICE Engine, a powerful system engine enabling business processes to be driven in a dynamic and integrated way.

“It is an application builder, an integration platform, a process orchestration engine and a lowcode development framework,” Kanellopoulos explains. “With the ICE Engine Framework development is between three and six times faster compared to an equivalent

ICE TECH

enterprise-grade solution, with solution changes that are lightningfast and which can be deployed in production with no downtime.”

BEITBRIDGE BORDER IMPACT While not the biggest, the border control between Zimbabwe and South Africa is by far the busiest not just in the country, but in the entire continent, Kanellopoulos tells us.

“There is, essentially, no other way to the African continent apart from through there. It means that all the big logistics companies are using this critical entry point to move cargo between South Africa and its southern African neighbours, translating to hundreds, if not thousands, of commercial vehicles traversing daily.”

With this level of use, however, naturally comes the ever-present threat of congestion, and levels reached critical points last year; in some cases, as a result, drivers were waiting for days to cross between South Africa and Zimbabwe. The challenges were put down to a damaging combination of new border access fees, slow traffic flow systems and a lack of coordination at different points along the border, while apparent electronic system problems also persisted on the Zimbabwean side.

The US$300m Beitbridge Border Post modernisation project, now underway, is expected to boost capacity fivefold for human and vehicular traffic at the region’s busiest inland port, and should result in required improvement to the current infrastructure while going a long way toward creating efficient and effective traffic management for both stakeholders and the economy at large.

This construction project, entailing upgrade, expansion and modernisation of the pivotal Beitbridge Border Post, has afforded ICE Engine the ideal opportunity to showcase the full extent of its

16 YEARS OF INNOVATION TO STAY AHEAD OF OUR GAME. We R iT. We R iT is proudly associated with ICE Tech as a supplier of IT Equipment and Peripherals within South Africa and Cross Border too. We are accredited partners with Dell Lenovo and HP to mention a few.

Visit www.werit.co.za to find out more

capabilities, Kanellopoulos furthers, with the whole continent looking on. “Our involvement in the project went live just a few months ago, just short of its complete form,” he explains. “This is clearly a massive undertaking, but is exactly the type of work to which we are best suited.

“Our system integrates with existing government process and becomes the overarching enablement function for the entire procedure of a truck, or a passenger vehicle, entering the border and taking care of everything that is required to successfully exit with its visa.”

The change at this critical post has been monumental, Kanellopoulos proudly reveals - a startling example of just what ICE Tech’s systems and innovations are capable of achieving. “I have

seen, both first-hand and in videos, the difference and it is genuinely night-and-day when comparing pre- and post-implementation.

A week before we deployed the technology queues of 20 to 30 kilometres were the norm; a week afterwards, there are no cars at all.

“This is the kind of impact our system has, and it is all built in with one philosophy: to ensure that, by using our technology and operational support the experience of the citizen, corporation or corporate customer is made significantly better than that to which we have grown accustomed.”

WWW.ICETECH.IO

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Ward B

ZUID-AFRIKAANS HOSPITAL A Century of

Quality Healthcare PRODUCTION: Eleanor Sarbutt-King

Who could have predicted that, from humble beginnings in 1904 as a six-bed nursing facility, Zuid-Afrikaans Hospital would burgeon into a facility boasting 181 hospital beds, more than 430 employees staffed exclusively by top specialists. MD Robert Jordaan talks Enterprise Africa through years of exceptional growth in all departments, where the utmost in care, efficiency and service are prescribed as standard.

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While the physical appearance and facade of the hospital may have changed over its near 120-year lifetime, what Zuid-Afrikaans Hospital has never deviated from is the level of service and peerless standards that generations of families have grown to know and trust.

Zuid-Afrikaans Hospital has gained a wide-reaching reputation

for the state-of-the-art equipment it deploys, and cutting-edge theatres, all combined with the very best nursing care. Patients enjoy additional restorative benefits in its unique healing environment which boasts beautiful outdoor gardens and verandas.

A private, independent and not for profit organisation, ZuidAfrikaans Hospital maintains a

staunch commitment to providing superior patient-centric care, whilst making continual advancements towards world-class clinical innovation. “Our top-class doctors provide expert care and are actively involved with their patients,” relays MD Robert Jordaan, “and we remain a hospital of choice for our patients that offers the highest level of patient-centred treatment.”

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INDUSTRY FOCUS: HEALTHCARE

NURTURING GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT One key recent development at Zuid-Afrikaans Hospital was a quite remarkable extension to its physical capacity, as it stands today proudly able to accommodate some 181 patients in a first-class facility. “Our recent addition of 42 new beds was a rather extraordinary allocation on the part of the Department of Health, which regulates the total number of

beds we can offer,” Jordaan outlines.

“An increase on this scale is far from an everyday occurrence,” he adds, speaking of an excellent working relationship between the two parties.

“From a growth point of view, and compared to the position we were in two years ago prior to the advent of Covid, this represents an increase of at least 30% and is a key avenue of development for Zuid-Afrikaans Hospital,” Jordaan summates.

When it comes to hospital choice, of course, everything depends on the quality of care and the overall healing culture offered to their well-respected patients.

Jordaan details some of the key services and procedures which the hospital’s array of expert practisers deliver. “Our core business takes in key focuses on cardiology and cardiothoracic, spinal, orthopaedic, general and ENT surgeries,

KARL STORZ ENDOSCOPY SOUTH AFRICA: WORLD-CLASS TECH SUPPORTS SA HEALTHCARE Supporting clinical processes through the application of advanced technology, KARL STORZ Endoscopy South Africa is a preferred partner of leading healthcare facilities across South Africa.

Bringing its well-known and widely respected brand of creativity, flexibility, and excellence to the South African market, KARL STORZ Endoscopy South Africa serves clients in human medicine, veterinary medicine, and industrial endoscopy with a globally-backed, world-leading portfolio of products that improve the operations of clinicians, medical personnel, and other users, refining end results for patients and clients.

The company has been working alongside leading organisations in South Africa for decades, with quality at the heart of everything it does. Building deep and mutually beneficial relationships with businesses across different sectors, KARL STORZ Endoscopy South Africa is recognised as a partner that helps drive service excellence.

The focus for Zuid Afrikaans Hospital is to be a magnet for the region, known for offering world-class service, exceeding the expectations of patients. Its surgeons are some of the world’s finest, and subsequently opt for the best tools in theatre.

KARL STORZ Endoscopy South Africa has been a partner to this impressive hospital for many years.

“We have a strong and healthy relationship with Zuid Afrikaans Hospital, in being a service provider of capital equipment,” says Managing Director, Marion Burgess.

“Our work at Zuid Afrikaans Hospital is an ongoing daily occurrence where we work alongside all stakeholders in minimally invasive surgery. Our endoscopic equipment is used in all spheres of minimally invasive surgery and training at the hospital.”

Aiming for country and continent-leading status in cardiac care, Zuid Afrikaans must choose partners with proven ability and KARL STORZ delivers international standards.

“Resolution is one of the key factors enabling the identification of fine details in endoscopic images,” says Burgess.

“The primary goal of any surgeon is to achieve optimal surgical results. To meet this objective, the visualisation and display of significant and critical structures is of crucial importance to the surgical workflow. The rapid development of camera technology has led to even greater insights in the surgical field as well as increasingly broader range of treatments in minimally invasive surgery and, ultimately, to a potentially better outcome for the patient.”

Working together, the two companies have created a situation where surgeons and patients feel confident, and the result is service excellence that is not achieved elsewhere.

“Guiding surgeons to better outcomes, and improving patient satisfaction is our priority,” says Burgess.

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KARL STORZ ENDOSK Since its beginning in 1945, the KARL STORZ family company has g instruments, and devices. Not a giant on an international scale b This guiding statement of company management is well known t istics that are at the root of the company’s success: Visionary id grated into a concept of sustainable entrepreneurship. With t Long-term, sustainable devel Finding even better technological solutions for endoscopy is w us while advances in medicine fascinate us. Our goal is to furth Made

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This guiding statement of company management is well known to each and every KARL STORZ staff member. It stands for the characteristics that are at the root of the company’s success: Visionary ideas that are grounded by traditional precise workmanship and are integrated into a concept of sustainable entrepreneurship. With this recipe for success, the company confidently faces future challenges. Long-term, sustainable development is always our primary concern.

Finding even better technological solutions for endoscopy is what drives us forward.

Technological milestones from the past motivate us while advances in medicine fascinate us. Our goal is to further consolidate our technological leadership in the future. Innovation – Made by KARL STORZ.

Karl Storz Endoscopy SA (Pty) Ltd | Tel: 021 417 2600 | www.karlstorz.com

INDUSTRY FOCUS: HEALTHCARE

specialist physician and paediatric services,” Jordaan delineates.

“Healthcare in South Africa is trending towards the treatment of same-day surgical patients in day clinic facilities, henceforth” he continues, explaining that Zuid-Afrikaans Hospital’s growth is not to be limited to within its current bounds.

While already comprehensive, it is a portfolio to which developments and additions are constantly being proposed and made, too, he continues. “While we will remain centrally focussed on cardiology, a hugely important area for us at present and one that we are striving to evolve concerns our emergency department.”

establishment, “and our unbending aim is to offer the right services, at the right time and at the right calibre.” This translates in part to a constant bid to keep the patient in hospital for the absolute minimum time that is needed, he furthers.

“We offer, to my mind, a superior service to our patients, as we allow them to leave with minimal delay or undue stress. This helps to negate the ever-looming menace of hospital-acquired infections but is also important when we consider the influence of our health funders.”

Zuid-Afrikaans Hospital’s refusal to admit anything but the highestquality, world-class service has a holistic benefit, according to Jordaan.

SUPERIOR SERVICE BENEFITS EVERYONE “At Zuid-Afrikaans Hospital, we provide a healthcare service,” Jordaan recognises of the private, independent nature of the

// BEING A HOSPITAL OF CHOICE ENSURES ORGANIC GROWTH DUE TO THE HIGH LEVEL AND QUALITY CARE OUR PATIENTS EXPERIENCE //

General Intensive Care Unit (GICU)

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“It makes sure that patients are able to leave us as quickly as possible, having had the very best experience available to them and poised to recover in a fashion that would have been otherwise unattainable, which in turn creates the capacity to admit more patients to the hospital.

“In our patient feedback, at least 90% of people testify to the level of service they experience here. Being a hospital of choice ensures organic growth due to the high level and quality care our patients experience.”

It is a service and success which Jordaan is not averse to harnessing the power of technology to bring on further, he reveals. “We are

ZUID-AFRIKAANS HOSPITAL

always looking to utilise advanced technology, to develop a leading edge in our core clinical disciplines and business processes. The focus to become more digital will also increase the availability of our nursing staff to care for patients.

“Continuing to build on a deeply rooted culture of care and excellence, provides a unique foundation for the future of the hospital” he beams. It is a blend that will prove crucial to Zuid-Afrikaans Hospital and its future successes, with no plans to stray from

the human, personal focus that has guided it to its current standing. “We have learned that it is impossible to do everything for everyone, which has inspired us to create this niche hospital,” Jordaan encapsulates.

“Our philosophy is to concentrate on our core business, and do that to the absolute best of our ability, investing in world-class equipment and employing quality doctors and staff that are dedicated to the hospital. That is the Zuid-Afrikaans Hospital’s recipe for success.”

// CONTINUING TO BUILD ON A DEEPLY ROOTED CULTURE OF CARE AND EXCELLENCE, PROVIDES A UNIQUE FOUNDATION FOR THE FUTURE OF THE HOSPITAL // WWW.ZAH.CO.ZA

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NETCARE

Person-Centred Care with

a Sustainable Heart PRODUCTION: Timothy Reeder

Throughout South Africa, Netcare’s unique and comprehensive range of private healthcare services and products cover the full spectrum of healthcare. As the company continues to rack up milestones and recognition in its provision of the best and safest care, the sustainability firmly at the heart of Netcare is embodied by its pioneering Alberton Hospital, scheduled to open in April this year.

//

“Our promise is to provide you with the best and safest care, centred around your unique needs and circumstances,” opens Netcare, South Africa’s leading provider of private healthcare. “We care about the dignity of our patients and all members of the Netcare family, and engage everyone with empathy and respond with acts of compassion in all interactions with our patients and their families.”

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Established in 1996 and listed on the JSE in the same year, Netcare operates the largest private hospital, primary healthcare, emergency medical services and renal care networks in South Africa.

Today this translates to a suite of 57 owned and managed hospitals, including four public private partnership (PPP) hospitals in South Africa, as well as one PPP hospital in Lesotho.

In South Africa 9,996 registered beds are available joined by 425 beds in its Lesotho facility, totalling well in excess of 10,000 places. “It is our privilege,” Netcare states, “to care for patients from across South Africa, neighbouring countries and further afield in Africa who make use of the specialised treatments offered at Netcare hospitals.

“At Netcare, we are striving to change healthcare for the better.”

INDUSTRY FOCUS: HEALTHCARE

CUTTING-EDGE CARE Netcare hospitals are well and truly at the forefront of private healthcare provision in South Africa, in large part thanks to longstanding and well-established partnership with specialists. Most recently these standards have been endorsed by the largest representative body for radiology worldwide - the American College of Radiology - in its granting full accreditation to Parklane Radiology, making it Africa’s first and only Breast Imaging Centre of Excellence (BICOE).

“We congratulate interventional and diagnostic radiologist, Dr Peter Schoub and the team at Parklane Radiology’s Women’s Wellness Centre on this landmark achievement for breast health on the continent,” effuses

Netcare Managing Director Jacques du Plessis of this incredible achievement.

The stringent requirements of the ACR process for accreditation encompass all breast imaging modalities, and to qualify, Parklane Radiology was required to demonstrate a high degree of proficiency in every one of these imaging types. This accomplished, all that was left to follow was the award of a full set of three-year ACR accreditations.

“Limited breast health diagnosis and treatment facilities on the continent unfortunately mean that for too many people, breast cancer is only detected once it is at a more advanced stage. This can make it harder, and often more resource intensive, to treat,” Dr Schoub relates.

“Our recognition as a Breast Imaging

// IT IS OUR PRIVILEGE TO CARE FOR PATIENTS FROM ACROSS SOUTH AFRICA, NEIGHBOURING COUNTRIES AND FURTHER AFIELD IN AFRICA //

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Centre of Excellence could not have been achieved without the caring, hard work, dedication to our patients and initiative of every member of the Parklane Radiology team.

“We thank our many patients for inspiring us and will provide them with world-class quality service in the years ahead.”

While already viewed as bastions of the cutting-edge of care in the country, Netcare is ever-anxious to develop and implement solutions to further ameliorate the quality of its healthcare by inspiring its people, encouraging innovation and optimising operations. “We continue to invest in expanding our hospitals to meet the growing need for quality healthcare services,” Netcare details, “and in equipping our facilities with the latest available technology.

“This approach creates an environment where the specialists who practise at our hospitals are able to provide their patients with cuttingedge, life-saving treatments.”

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NETCARE

The new, ultramodern Netcare Alberton Hospital, which will open to patients in April this year, could hardly better embody this approach.

Construction recently completed, its main contractor Trencon Construction last month officially handed over the building to Netcare for the final phase of preparations.

“The handover represents a significant milestone in the development of our new future fit healthcare facility, and the culmination of a decade long journey of options analysis, planning and implementation of this new purpose-built hospital,” says Jacques du Plessis, Managing Director of Netcare’s hospital division of the new 427-bed facility developed by the Rejem-Linton-Netcare Joint Venture, a joint venture consisting of Netcare Properties, local businessman Riaan Jonker and Nedbank.

SUSTAINABLE EXCELLENCE Power saving, water and waste recycling, integral building design elements and materials are amongst a raft of green initiatives forming part of the environmentally sustainable approach to healthcare at the Netcare Alberton Hospital, explicitly demonstrating the central focus on environmental sustainability at the heart of its design.

“Developing the large 427-bed hospital from scratch presented us with the ideal opportunity to lay

// WE CONTINUE TO INVEST IN EXPANDING OUR HOSPITALS TO MEET THE GROWING NEED FOR QUALITY HEALTHCARE SERVICES //

a strong foundation for providing healthcare more sustainably, through reducing reliance on the national power grid and conserving and recycling water, among other environmentally-conscious design features,” says du Plessis.

Last year, Netcare became the first private healthcare organisation in Africa to commit to the Race to Zero 2050 challenge, pledging to support the UN’s goal of achieving net zero emissions by 2050. “Water is a finite resource and as a result of global warming and pollution the availability of quality potable water supplies in South Africa are becoming more and more constrained,” comments André Nortjé, national environmental sustainability manager at Netcare, as some projections suggest that South Africa’s demand for water could outstrip available water supply by 17% by 2030, based on projected population and economic growth.

“In the new hospital’s systems, we have therefore considered how this looming risk of water shortages could be mitigated,” Nortjé goes on, “and in line with Netcare’s 2030 sustainability strategy and our participation in the United Nations led international Race to Zero 2050 challenge, the Netcare Alberton Hospital will conserve water as far as possible through its own, onsite grey water treatment plant.”

In the quest for zero emissions at the new hospital, which will merge and expand the facilities and services of Netcare Clinton and Netcare Union, a full building management system (BMS) monitors water and power usage throughout the technologicallyadvanced, digitally-enabled hospital, to proactively foresee and prevent unnecessary wastage and optimise efficiency in daily operations.

It is equipped with a photovoltaic solar energy generating system that will contribute two gigawatt hours of electricity each year, equal to seven million energy efficient light bulbs.

“Environmental consciousness is a growing priority for people in their everyday lives,” du Plessis concludes. “The advanced design features, mechanical and building management systems at Netcare Alberton Hospital along with the Netcare Group’s sustainability targets demonstrate that healthcare organisations can, and should, make a key contribution to protecting the health of our environment for the benefit of individuals, communities and future generations.”

WWW.NETCARE.CO.ZA

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BIDTRAVEL

SA Tourism

Lives Again PRODUCTION: Christina Allcock

Lidia de Olim Folli, CEO of BidTravel, tells Enterprise Africa that through the toughest of times, the group has sustained and succeeded, and now that business and leisure travel is back on the itinerary, this is an organisation and industry ready to play its part in South Africa’s story.

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By introducing legislation, restrictions, lockdowns, and controls around the movement of people, politicians took the fight to the quickly spreading Covid-19 virus in 2020.

But the outcome was devastating for industries that run on people travelling. Tourism, hospitality, transport, food and leisure, and many more were quickly stopped in their tracks. Industries that employ millions of people, and contribute heavily to GDP, cramped up and crashed when lockdowns were implemented. In 2019, tourism contributed 3.7% to GDP (more than construction or utilities or agriculture) and around 4.7% of the total workforce in South Africa.

BidTravel – the leading SA-based travel management specialist for both corporate and leisure services – was not exempt from the impact of the pandemic.

Even its Bidvest-backing could not shield it completely from the mass cancellations and grounding of fleet which decimated South Africa’s inbound and outbound travel.

But the strength of the business has been displayed clearly through the pandemic. Each of the companies operating under the banner or in partnership with BidTravel (Cruises International, Rennies-BCD Travel, CWT SA, Travel Connections, WorldTravel, BushBreaks & More, Quadrel Travel Management, Harvey World Travel, New Frontiers Tours, and many more) have right-sized to best serve the needs of

clients and provide expertise that truly makes a difference.

Whether it’s simply booking flights on the best routes at the best price for delegates travelling to a conference, or bringing international visitors into South Africa for an unforgettable experience - handling everything from travel to accommodation and more BidTravel has the market covered.

CEO Lidia de Olim Folli tells Enterprise Africa that the company was forced to reposition quickly, making the most of local opportunities while borders were closed, and standing strong when the world began to book into South Africa again. Her outlook is positive, and the past few months have provided much to be excited about.

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INDUSTRY FOCUS: TRAVEL

“We saw a pickup in October and November, and the following the Omicrom variant being identified, December and January cooled off. At the end of January, we saw huge interest,” she begins. “People were coming back into offices and domestic interest was big. International carriers only began coming back into the country in February but not running full fleets. To look to the future, with all things being equal and no one making any silly decisions, our domestic will come back into full swing by June. Internationally, we build interest for business and leisure, and we do expect to see more people coming into the southern hemisphere – I’m quite positive. I don’t think we will get back to where we were 100% in this calendar year, but I think we will be at 80% by the end of the year.”

She is delighted at the prospect of hiring again. Tourism has long been hailed by government as a creator of jobs, and de Olim Folli agrees, highlighting the speed and sustainability that comes with employment in this industry as a real boon.

“The tourism industry has always been viewed as a good developer of young talent because there is not a large barrier to entry in terms of starting small businesses – it has been identified as a growth opportunity,” she says. “It is relatively easy to get trading licenses; it’s the exposure on the map and marketing the business effectively that takes more time. Any other industry requires large investment into capital equipment and can take a long time to yield.

“The hospitality has and is suffering from a skills shortage while people have been forced to find alternative opportunities. It’s not just in our space – it

// IT’S IMPORTANT TO REALISE THAT PEOPLE NEED HELP MORE OFTEN THAT THEY REALISE // 38 / www.enterprise-africa.net

takes a massive amount of time and effort to restart a hotel for example. The prep work is a lot – the entire industry has been hard hit, globally,” she admits.

THE RIGHT INVESTMENT With a future investment strategy surrounding people, BidTravel will look to upskill, reskill, and recreate employment quickly as the country looks for opportunity.

“In the services industry, an investment in people can never be the wrong investment,” confirms de Olim Folli.

“All of us who work in the industry are struggling to make commercial decisions as we are recovering after an extended period of loss making. We will certainly continue to look at opportunities and see what is out there, but I have said to the team that our focus must be internal. It has been hard for people working in travel and giving confidence that you can have a career in this business is now vital.”

Such a large change in the make up of the workforce has made attracting talent difficult – and the virus lingers, creating ongoing uncertainty. A new BidTravel training programme will demonstrate the opportunities that are available and the transferable skills that are quickly picked up in travel and tourism.

“You have to expose people to the industry – we are busy working on a learnership programme for employees

// I’M QUITE POSITIVE. I DON’T THINK WE WILL GET BACK TO WHERE WE WERE 100% IN THIS CALENDAR YEAR, BUT I THINK WE WILL BE AT 80% BY THE END OF THE YEAR // already in our businesses where we can train junior and intermediate level people. They have to experience getting on an airplane, going into hotels, getting to lodges – we have lots a lot of IP with people who have left the industry. For us, our next 18-months is internally focussed as you have to rebuild the workforce. It’s more complicated in Africa where people have less access to the internet and self-study, less experience working on the phone, and inconsistent electricity supply.

“We want to put a structured process in place so that in 18-months’ time, the workforce has been rebuilt but with the right set of skills. This is absolutely essential as senior people will eventually retire and we need to have a supply of people to follow in their footsteps,” details de Olim Folli.

BIDTRAVEL

DOMESTIC FOCUS With full international interest in travel to southern and South Africa not expected for another 18 months, the travel management market – especially around leisure – has switched to take up a local focus while people pause for total certainty before booking flights into or out of the country.

For BidTravel, this was an easy transition and the company has, for some time, been well-placed to cater to the domestic market. Its subsidiaries are knowledgeable, experienced, and keen to encourage exposure to South Africa’s beauty, but they have needed to shift.

“Businesses like BushBreaks have been resilient, as it has exposed South Africans to bush opportunities as the bush lodges in Southern Africa tend to be well-kept secrets and very expensive because they are targeted at the international markets. Now, they have changed pricing structures to accommodate southern Africans,” says de Olim Folli.

“South Africans have the experience of the bush mainly through our national parks, as a camping experience as opposed to a lodge. When there was a lockdown or restriction, BushBreaks would do better as South Africans couldn’t go anywhere. A big blow for us from a leisure and market perspective was Mauritius – a hugely popular destination for South Africans. It opened to us in October with huge forward bookings, but with Omicron,

// WE ARE THE CONTINENT THAT HAS GONE FROM HAVING NOTHING TO HAVING ENABLED MOBILE PHONES – THAT IS A STRONG MECHANISM FOR US //

it closed again in December. Many South Africans had vacations booked in island destinations including Mauritius, Zanzibar and the Maldives and they were all of a sudden stuck at home looking into South African holidays, for the second time,” she adds.

Now, BushBreaks has consistent repeat business coming through and in any given month, there is an influx of reservations – especially around school and public holidays as the staycation grows in popularity. “We’ve never really had that in the past; it’s always been a last-minute special type of operation where people would book to get away for the weekend. We would send a mailer on a Thursday and people would see it over the weekend and book for the following weekend. Now we see more consistency and that is a benefit.”

The ability in individual businesses

to be agile in strategic decision making is representative of the larger BidTravel organisation, and de Olim Folli is sure this trait will be required in the future.

“The lodges have realised that you must have a mix of both and you cannot online rely on only international tourists. Announcements are made that are beyond our control and all of a sudden you have no guests, and that is incredibly sad.

“It has made us resilient and we now realise that we can overcome a lot more than we ever thought we would, and you can be a lot more nimble.

Technology has enabled us to think creatively, outside of the box, and bring about change that would have otherwise taken a lot longer. We have to look at the positives and we are happy with our learnings individually and a business.”

Work or play we have your accommodation needs across Southern Africa covered!

Namibia

Mozambique Botswana

South Africa Road Lodge Town Lodge

www.clhg.com

City Lodge Hotel Courtyard Hotel

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INDUSTRY FOCUS: TRAVEL

RISKY BUSINESS? Despite the positive outlook, and the pleasing improvements in traveller numbers into and out of South Africa, the market remains challenged and uncertainty is often the only certainty.

People remain concerned about the effects of Covid-19, and de Olim Folli is busy setting new strategies to make the most of opportunities that are available now.

“It comes down to an individual’s risk response,” she says of the question around whether business travel will return as a true requirement.

“As Bidvest, we have always hosted incentive travel trips for our top performers across the many Bidvest businesses. We were bullish about a recovery for travel and had organised a big incentive trip for our team in

Lidia de Olim Folli: BidTravel CEO

40 / www.enterprise-africa.net

early December 2021. Our group CEO wanted everyone on that trip to be fully vaccinated, there were some who do not want the vaccine so it’s about risk management from a corporate perspective and keeping employees safe and within regulations. Business travel is now not as essential as there are other mechanisms, but people do want to get out and meet people – that is a fact. We had questions around this trip about whether we would be interacting with others in the airport, or if we would travel with masks. There will be 150 of us who are all colleagues but there was a lot of angst about people sitting on airplanes. I do think that those of us are risk agnostic will continue to travel, but there are some who were perhaps not regular travellers in the first place and will now simply never travel again.”

But, now is the perfect time to grow our market share as smaller companies battle for their stake while BidTravel has strong backing and the ability to offer what others cannot, bringing a turnkey service to clients. Utilising social media, promoting transformation, and rebuilding Brand South Africa will help the group to thrive.

“You can’t ignore the role of social media. Each and every one of the businesses has a social media strategy around what works for them in terms of target audience,” confirms de Olim Folli.

“People are so familiar with being online and so the strategy must be mobile.

Across the African continent, people didn’t have access to a desktop. We are the continent that has gone from having nothing to having enabled mobile phones – that is a strong mechanism for us.”

By working hand-in-hand with small, local businesses, the company champions BBBEE and, with the Bidvest Group a Level Three contributor, there is much opportunity for partnership.

“We try, in the corporate space, to pair up with others to offer opportunities that need enablement.

The communities that lodges support can be rural and can support local jobs and spend a lot of time training there.

Small businesses quickly enable other small businesses to get started. It all ties in to BBBEE and we do everything we can to provide opportunities,” explains de Olim Folli.

“Also, a central and vital goal for us and our industry is to re-establish South Africa as a premium tourism destination, that would make all the difference. It’s a beautiful country to come and explore.”

REASONING RE-ESTABLISHED As numbers have started to pick up, there has been a clear acceleration in the leisure space as travellers have yearned for new experiences. But in the business space, questions remain about relevance.

BidTravel and de Olim Folli have no doubt that the group’s offering is still relevant, and that business travel will undoubtedly be required.

BIDTRAVEL

// WE HAVE SEEN THE REESTABLISHMENT OF THE REASONING BEHIND WHY WE NEED TO WORK WITH INDIVIDUALS WHO ARE SKILLED // “Across both leisure and business, we have seen the reestablishment of the reasoning behind why we need to work with individuals who are skilled. It’s important to realise that people need help more often that they realise and it can be difficult and unpredictable.

“In leisure, where we saw an attrition of people wanting to use travel specialists because they can do it themselves, we are now seeing people struggle as they simply cannot get through to an airline that has been

grounded because those call centres are too busy, for example.

“There was a lot of talk of business travel being dead and there would be no need for travel consultants. There was recognition that there would always be some demand for leisure but on business travel – with everyone sick of Zoom and Teams meetings – there is now recognition that digital solutions were only successful because there was no alternative. I believe that hybrid events are not as effective. We must work with technology as opposed to it becoming the only enabler. There is a place for business travel, there will always be a place for business travel, and it is not necessarily something which should be navigated alone. We don’t want to do everything, but we are there for the complicated stuff and we can help,” she states.

With the rationale for the organisation’s existence validated, future regrowth is essential, and this

blossoming group of South African advocates will see internal investment that will drive external prospects.

“Our investment will go into our people,” de Olim Folli concludes. “I do believe the opportunity to grow market share is there now.”

Today, southern Africa is very much open for business. Travellers are welcome, and the rest of the world is accessible to South Africans as they move for business or leisure. BidTravel has the tools to ensure a smooth process throughout. Clearly, there is a chance to regain the industry’s GDP contribution and create organic, sustainable opportunities. Thankfully, the tourism industry is helping travellers to Live Again.

WWW.BIDTRAVEL.CO.ZA

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MOWANA PROPERTIES Deep Roots Provide Great Growth

for Mowana Properties PRODUCTION: James Davey

Embracing change, driving transformation, and aiming to deliver world-class standards, Mowana Properties is eyeing the industry’s top spots as it prepares for extended growth. Managing Director Samuel Ramuhashi talks to Enterprise Africa about the potential for this exciting and innovative business.

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In the listed property sector, and the busy property management industry in South Africa, there has been a shift in recent years as technology advances have changed expectations for clients, and transformation and revolution have created new structures in the industry’s leaders. Market dynamics have also moved – no longer is the focus just about office, residential, commercial, and industrial. Mixed-use, blended facilities, semi-parastatal-type operations are important, and the list of core services that a property management company delivers is ever-evolving. With a long list of competent, professional, effective players, South Africa’s industry is well-served, but there remains room for a local business - transformed in its composition, focussed solely on quality to step up and lead.

Since 2015, Sandton-based Mowana Properties has been driving a culture of excellence as it grows its reputation with existing clients. This reputation is now encouraging enquiries from elsewhere in the market as potential clients hunt for experienced black-owned, black-

managed, and black-operated partners with the ability to scale.

Managing Director Samuel Ramuhashi tells Enterprise Africa that Mowana Properties is opening new doors of opportunity after proving itself managing two large portfolios with significant value.

“Since its establishment seven years ago, Mowana Properties has successfully managed properties in the value of R42 billion and has seen sustained growth in the business. Through its service and rapid growth, Mowana Properties has exposed itself to other vast possible opportunities,” he says.

“The facilities management services market remains fragmented with a lot of small players and a dominant few. With Mowana Properties’ already existing portfolio under management, its track record and historical financial performance, it will be able to raise third-party financing for consolidation of the facilities management sector and carry out mergers and acquisitions or share-for-share mergers and acquisitions transactions without major dilution.”

Currently, the company manages

the portfolio owned by Pareto Limited, an unlisted Property Loan Stock (PLS) company and the portfolio directly owned by the Government Employees Pension Fund (GEPF), Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) and Compensation Fund (CF) through the Public Investment Corporation (PIC). In total, the company manages over 2.1 million m2 of GLA (Gross Lettable Area).

The Pareto portfolio consists of premium shopping centre assets including Cresta Shopping Centre, Menlyn Park Shopping Centre, The Pavilion Shopping Centre and Tyger Valley Shopping Centre.

The GEPF, UIF and CF property portfolio consists of retail shopping centres (Urban and Township), offices and specialised buildings, residential and industrial properties in major metropolis and towns in the country.

Mowana’s services for these properties under management spans across facilities management, property management, development leasing, development marketing, leasing management, retail management, project management and more.

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INDUSTRY FOCUS: PROPERTY

GLOBAL STANDARDS Ramuhashi is keen for Mowana Properties to grow its list of services and expand into new sectors – not as competitors to existing operators, but as a thought leader that provides existing and new clients with turnkey solutions.

Already, the property brokerage and project management divisions are established. Alternative media solutions will assist in the company’s marketing service offering; and complementary services in parking infrastructure, specialised building cleaning, hygiene and waste management, integrated security solutions, landscaping services and integrated solar services are all value-add services that the company is exploring.

“Our project management offering is benchmarked to global standards, guaranteeing that clients obtain world-class service and expertise,” he says. “With client service and value creation in mind, the aim is to offer incomparable project management solutions extending from initial

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concept development through to completion and ultimate handover.

Mowana Properties has an outstanding track record for delivering projects on time, economically and without compromising on quality.”

Crucially, growing the portfolio, and expanding the company’s outreach comes as a result of internal investment. For Mowana Properties, internal investment is at the very core of its ideology. The company’s mission is ‘to provide superior and efficient property and facilities management services and innovative solutions to our clients’, and its culture is ‘one of enabling each employee to reach their full potential and in return demanding consistent performance against that standard’. Ramuhashi is clear that transformation sits staunchly within this culture. Expanding the business means expanding the industry for young black professionals, creating a local industry bursting with talent, feeding into the achievement of the mission.

“While there is a commercial

interest for Mowana Properties to grow and manage sustainable businesses within the retail and property sector, there is also a commitment to ensuring that we develop requisite competencies within the sector, especially amongst black South Africans, who for years played a marginal role, not by choice, but by a system designed to keep them on the periphery,” he says.

“The property sector is in desperate need to develop a talent pipeline to accelerate transformation at management and senior management level. Investing in skills development for young professionals is also flagged by property practitioners as key to retaining talent within the sector.”

Currently, Mowana Properties is an active member of the internationally acclaimed Institute of Real Estate Management (IREM) – among other memberships – and looks to upskill employees through this global alliance of experts. “It’s a legacy for young black professionals in the property sector.

We recognise its value, not just for us

MOWANA PROPERTIES

as a company but for the industry,” says Ramuhashi. “These are the changes that will shape the sector, the start may be slow, but the impact is going to be huge.”

Africa’s property management industry is packed with international players, owned by European or North American conglomerates. While there are successful African organisations operating across the continent, there is recognition that localisation of skills and development of knowledge in South African businesses is necessary.

“The South African property sector predominantly remains untransformed and largely white owned,” states Ramuhashi. “Consequently propertyrelated service providers also remain untransformed. This results in a dominance of a few large players while the smaller (mostly black) players remain unsuccessful due to blue-chip companies continuously securing property management and propertyrelated services from untransformed suppliers instead of supporting blackcontrolled companies.”

TRANSFORMED? Despite significant progress since the establishment of a democratic government in 1994, South African society - including the property sector remains characterised by racially based income and social services inequalities.

“This is not only unjust, but inhibits South Africa’s ability to achieve its full economic potential,” Ramuhashi adds, highlighting the importance of robust BBBEE credentials.

“The BEE legislative environment provides an advantage to compliant companies as most government department use the BEE scorecard as their guideline in procuring services.

These services include property rentals. Through our BEE status and track record, Mowana Properties has been able to tender for contracts requiring holistic facilities and property management services to increase its revenue and profitability.”

The Property Sector Charter Council (PSCC) released a report recently which highlights the issues, and why

transformation is not only important, but essential in the industry.

77% of estate agents are white, while 23% are black (African, Coloured, and Indian). In terms of gender balance, there were more female agents registered at the Estate Agencies Affairs Board (EAAB) in 2018, at 58%. Ownership balance is targeted at 30% but sits at 15%. Skills development goals sit at just 5% against a 19% target.

“Ultimately, progress has not been deep or fast enough, as the report suggests,” states Ramuhashi.

“There are, however, signs of a belief in the need to transform, even if the sector has not yet adequately put this awareness into action.”

The goals of the PSCC include achievement of change in racial and gender composition of property ownership, control, and management, and to enhance the participation of black people and women in the South African property sector, overcoming obstacles to property ownership and participation in the property market for black people,

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INDUSTRY FOCUS: PROPERTY

improvement in access to finance for property ownership and development, and to promote employment equity in the sector.

“In this context” says Ramuhashi, “there has been transformation in board composition, while transformation through share ownership has been slow.

The report notes that large institutional investors often hold a large portion of shares in real estate investment trusts (REITs) and may be unwilling to relinquish substantial portions of these shares.”

Mowana Properties is a Level 1 BBBEE contributor and boasts exceptional female leadership.

“Mowana Properties has a skilled and experienced management team with individuals who have an average of 25 years’ specialised properties and finance expertise. Our Financial Director, Ms Kholiwe Fana is an experienced Chartered Accountant, with key property management and asset management skills.

“The company boasts a wide array of skills amongst young professionals and women across different functionalities of the company.

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Some of the more complex retail shopping centres in the country are managed by women. Five of the seven regional and super-regional shopping centres on the Pareto portfolio have been entrusted to women and they are responsible for the bulk of the profitability of the company, while more that 90% of the neighbourhood centres of the GEPF portfolio are also managed by women. The executive management of Mowana Properties also has a strong representation of women in key strategic positions including the portfolio executive on the Pareto portfolio, Ms Olive Ndebele and the portfolio executive on the GEPF, UIF and CF portfolios, Ms Mercy Maina,” details Ramuhashi.

Young, black, female professionals also oversee collection, leasing, and property management functions within Mowana Properties.

PROP TECH The onset of ‘everything digital in every operation’ as part of the fourth industrial revolution has not skipped the property sector. In fact, this is an

industry which has arguably made the best use of digital solutions to advance and bolster its service portfolio. From AI used in security systems, collaborative innovation used in financing, and cloud hosting of job sheets and project documents, through to speedy communication and investment tools, property and technology go handin-hand. But Ramuhashi is keen for technology to be an enabler and not a replacer of human capability.

“At Mowana Properties we are introducing new technologies and connecting desperate systems to enhance the productivity and derived value of buildings, processes and people,” he says. “By merging traditional bricks and mortar with smart devices and the IoT, we are able to obtain access to real-time data to ensure our people and property portfolios operates efficiently through live-time decision making capability.

“Our technology strategy aims to be embedded into our business operating model, but there are three key areas,” he adds. “First is operational efficiencies, especially automation beyond just cost savings, to technology that enables people and processes through agile and resilient infrastructure.

“Second is insights through data and analytics. We strive to be a datadriven company, and the amount of data out there has been growing at an astounding rate giving us the visibility to key information for decisions and managing performance.

“Finally, integrating property management and building technologies areas i.e. how we interact with prospective and current tenants, and how we manage the buildings themselves. We aim to bring together the business and technology changes needed to make meaningful, sustainable growth and tangible value to all our stakeholders. The ultimate vision is to create a digital ecosystem where meaningful and valuable data is the lifeblood that flows between and within all we do.”

MOWANA PROPERTIES

RECENT SUCCESSES The COVID-19 pandemic and the lockdown measures that were put in place to help curb its spread, forced a rethink around all assumptions about how we see retail spaces and catering for audiences that are keen on ‘experiences’ rather than going to the malls to just buy things. Apparel retail stores as an example, have come in large numbers both from local and around the world and can be found in all shopping centres around South Africa. This is what defined traditional mall structures.

However, the influence of ‘Kasi lifestyle’ can never be minimised when talking about the country’s ever expanding fashion industry. The emergence of brands like Legends, Drip, Bathu, Era, and Spelete are some that have exploded onto the scene and are redefining the traditional fashion lifestyle.

“Through the shopping centres we manage, we recognised the impact of the pandemic on small businesses and utilised the lifestyle markets concept to support small businesses to showcase their designs by utilising existing spaces in the most innovative way,” says Ramuhashi.

The lifestyle markets implemented at the Pareto shopping centres supported small businesses by affording them the opportunity to showcase their products and to grow, gain exposure and generate income. The Pavilion Shopping Centre implemented the Social Gallery, an art and fashion gallery.

The Gallery allowed for designers and artists to sell from the space and the PR campaign shone a light on each of the entrepreneurs. Between October and December in 2021, the entrepreneurs featured at the Gallery generated circa.

R920,000 in revenue.

In 2021, the lifestyle markets supported over 1392 entrepreneurs.

Menlyn Park Shopping Centre supported 62 vendors at its Summer Festival. Mimosa Mall provided exhibition space to 50 entrepreneurs at

Samuel Ramuhashi - Managing Director its Entrepreneurs Market. Tyger Valley Shopping Centre, through its various markets held throughout the year, supported 1280 entrepreneurs.

Such initiatives make Mowana Properties an award-winning company, having amassed several industry awards in recognition of our exceptional shopping centre marketing, innovation, and creative achievements as well as excellent customer service. “Across all our different shopping centres, Mowana Properties is recognised with various awards, ranging from Footprint Marketing Awards to the Spectrum Awards,” smiles Ramuhashi.

November 2021 also saw the award of a Bronze South African Council of Shopping Centres (SACSC) PR award for the Vangate Mall following its successful project promoting the launch of the Barakat Movie premiere in April 2021.

Again, a community-focussed project, this concept was a driver of activity in Athlone.

“With the management of 180 retail, commercial, industrial, vacant land and residential properties, across all provinces except Northern Cape

and Mpumalanga provinces, Mowana Properties is the most trusted property management company in South Africa.

Our overall knowledge of the property market, as well as an appreciation of regional property market dynamics put Mowana Properties in an excellent position to provide expert and professional advice to investors and property owners,” concludes Ramuhashi.

Mowana – the Setswana word for the Baobab tree – is growing but is already wise and strong. A transformed business, dedicated to service excellence, and proven in its ability to deliver for clients, Mowana Properties is perhaps the next star to shine in South Africa’s busy property industry. Driving change, this is the company to watch as it begins its next growth chapter atop some of the strongest foundations in the sector.

WWW.MOWANAPROPERTIES.CO.ZA

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Business Development Director - Debbie Hemp

SACAP

Innovative Education for a

Better, Happier World PRODUCTION: Timothy Reeder

SACAP (The South African College of Applied Psychology) combines a peerless grounding in Applied Psychology with an innovative and transformative educational philosophy. At perhaps a time of greatest-ever need, SACAP is tapping the enormous potential in South African society to produce knowledgeable and transformational practitioners and effect positive change through robust academics, practical skills, and individual attention.

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Since its establishment in 1997 in Cape Town, SACAP has enjoyed steady and consistent growth. A seminal moment in its history came with the advent of formalised bodies of recognition such as the National Qualifications Framework (NQF) which brought the institution college accreditation as a private higher education institution with the South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA) and the Council on Higher Education (CHE).

“This was a big turning point for SACAP,” comments Business Development Director, Debbie Hemp, “as it meant that we were then able to package our modules into various diploma qualifications.”

This, coupled with its Executive Committee’s inspired vision of

scope and scale, SACAP now stands proudly at the forefront of higher education in Applied Psychology, Management and Leadership, and Social Work and Community Development in South Africa.

Hemp continues: “Our grounding in Applied Psychology, together with our innovative and transformative educational philosophy, means that the graduates who leave SACAP blend skill, critical thinking and creativity to be responsive to the needs of society which leads to positive change.”

SEAMLESS TRANSITION The college now has over 3000 students enrolled, and is growing all the time in both number and reach; custom-designed campuses in Cape Town, Durban, Johannesburg and Pretoria are bolstered by the ability to offer training across the world via SACAP’s Online campus. Hemp expands: “Our vast online presence is forming a big part of SACAP’s plans for further prominence.

“We have always had an Online campus facility, along with our original face-to-

// OUR COUNSELLORS HAVE A CRUCIAL ROLE TO PLAY ALONGSIDE PSYCHOLOGISTS IN PROGRESSING THE MENTAL HEALTH LANDSCAPE IN SOUTH AFRICA // www.enterprise-africa.net / 49

INDUSTRY FOCUS: EDUCATION

face delivery, but our digital offering is by far our biggest and fastest growing business vertical at present,” Hemp reveals, “and so much of our focus has been on developing the online space.

Naturally, during Covid in particular, we saw this flourish massively but it seems to be continuing and accelerating, and is the source of much of our current success and progress.

“At the same time, we have nurtured our face-to-face campuses and, rather than show any signs of declining, they too are continuing to thrive and grow.”

SACAP’s visions are not limited to South Africa, Hemp continues. “We have also been exploring both regional and international expansions,” she says.

// A PSYCHOLOGY QUALIFICATION AND THE SKILLS IT TEACHES ARE APPLICABLE TO MYRIAD SPECIALISMS //

“We currently offer micro-credentials in Malaysia, for instance, and are seeking to pursue more of the same.”

In response to the Covid pandemic, SACAP’s already robust and proven Online campus had to make a sudden, and vital, shift. Backed by SACAP’s trademark care and support, the Online campus seamlessly provided course delivery solely via the screen.

Hemp explains: “While the move online was practically flawless, we also offered students tools to which they may not necessarily have had access, such as routers and data. This enabled them to obtain every benefit from the online arrangements.

“Not only on the data and learning side, support also extended to technical assistance and such facilities as counselling. We did our utmost to promote the primordial importance of, and central focus on, mental health throughout the pandemic.” As the need for mental healthcare to become a national priority grew in urgency, with the pandemic taking hold,

SACAP’s webinar ‘A global crisis and the impact on South African communities’ was incredibly well-timed.

Participants were afforded the opportunity to join SACAP educators Dr Gordon Isaacs and Thelma Oppelt in their discussion of community mental health in the time of Covid-19.

“It also underlined the positive role that SACAP’s Master of Social Science in Community Mental Health Promotion plays. The qualification focuses on building competencies as a strategic leader and social innovator in the various contexts of the South African mental health landscape.”

CRITICAL ROLE IN CHANGE The widely-reported shortfalls in South African mental healthcare have long been noted, but if the global pandemic can be said to have had some semblance of positive impact, it is in the long-lasting changes which will be ushered in as a result in societies around the world. SACAP’s Master of Social Science in Community Mental

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INDUSTRY FOCUS: EDUCATION

Health Promotion is specifically geared toward pushing SA social innovators to address community mental health challenges in more effective ways, but as Hemp points out: “Rarely has there been a more welcome time for the skills and competences imparted through the full breadth of our courses.

“We don’t only produce psychologists,” she stresses. “We also graduate around 70 counselling students each year, registered with the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA), who have a central role to play alongside psychologists in progressing the mental health landscape in South Africa.

“Our students are empowered to enter a whole range of fields should they elect not to become psychologists. It is important to note that a Psychology qualification and the skills it teaches are applicable to myriad specialisms - learning about

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// WE ARE TAKING A HOLISTIC APPROACH WHEN IT COMES TO OUR QUALIFICATIONS AND THE WAY THAT WE DELIVER OUR LEARNING // people, and understanding how to work and integrate with them and extract their very best, dealing with conflict and issues in teams, and refining research and analytical skills - all are deployed by our students in a vast array of disciplines.”

A primary challenge for SACAP now lies in consolidating its position at the very forefront of psychological education in South Africa. Academically, its educators are renowned for being leading professionals in their own domains, allowing students to benefit from their wealth of experience and skill, which enables SACAP to cement its standing as a centre of excellence for education,

research, and personal and professional development in Applied Psychology.

“We are taking a holistic approach when it comes to our qualifications and the way that we deliver our learning,” Hemp details, “with a very strong emphasis on quality, we are constantly measuring every aspect of our provision to ensure quality and make improvements as and when required, which is a lot easier for us to do as a private entity compared to those operating in the public space; we can be much more adaptable and agile, and progress things much more quickly.

“We also constantly update and refine our curriculum, ensuring that it comprises only the most recent research, but this is still only as effective as the manner in which it is brought to life in our classrooms.

Here, having educators who are practitioners bringing their real-life experiences to their teaching is a significant differentiator for us.

“Small class sizes of around 25, even with our online classes, allow us to constantly bring the theory to life in an applied manner,” Hemp expounds, “this is closely tied into the considerable Work Integrated Learning (WIL) component of all of our degrees, allowing students to actively go out into the field, engage and make a difference right from the off.”

In this way, SACAP is also able to form links with various psychosocial organisations in the counselling, community, health and welfare services, Hemp says. “The intention is that this collaborative work will promote excellence in the education and training of students within these industries.”

Prominent and renowned as it already is, Hemp still identifies many

SACAP

www.swiwel.com opportunities for SACAP to grow its market share and play an even more impactful role in responding to the enormous current need in South Africa. “With the online space growing

as it has, even as a somewhat niche, private institution we are looking to attract a much larger proportion of our overall market,” she concludes.

“We have the opportunity to

reach a much broader audience, possibly even with novel offerings, and really look to create more access for people to be able to study Psychology. These individuals can then effect social impact and change, and this is really what we are all about - fulfilling a critical and positive role within South African communities and our society at large in order to make a transformational impact on the lives of others.”

WWW.SACAP.EDU.ZA

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ADEGA

Seasoned Team Relaunches Adega PRODUCTION: Leanna Lucas

Afro-Portuguese favourite, Adega, has been rebranded and relaunched after the pandemic, and customers are delighted with the new offering, and digital transformation program. Director Victor Graca talks to Enterprise Africa about the new expectation of the restaurant industry.

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The years of 2020 and 2021 will forever be remembered as times of tragedy and difficulty.

Covid-19 created challenges like never before. Travel, tourism, hospitality, retail – all battered by the virus itself and the subsequent restrictions.

Looking back is not fun for most.

And, with issues remaining - and the virus lingering – planning for growth remains tricky.

But, despite the hurdles, some have managed to serve up positivity. By grasping limited opportunities or creating new chances, entrepreneurs have astounded many with what has been

achieved in excruciating circumstances.

In March 2020, South Africa’s aggressive lockdown rules came into place, including closure of all non-essential workplaces, and bans on entertainment, alcohol sales, and more. Victor Graca, Director of Adega Holdings, was busy preparing a total revamp, reboot, and revitalisation of the Adega restaurant brand. The marketing expert had realised the change in the restaurant space that was underway as Covid had closed so many down.

Transitioning from simple eatery to entertainment destination with digital capability was no easy task.

“Adega is a brand that has tremendous heritage in South Africa and has been around for more than 20 years,” Graca tells Enterprise Africa.

TOTAL REBUILD Coming from humble beginnings, starting up in a converted Johannesburg house, Adega’s food quickly gained a following. Portuguese inspired, with a focus on seafood, the brand became popular rapidly.

“It exploded from there and grew exponentially over the years to become a quintessential Portuguese seafood restaurant that is very warm

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INDUSTRY FOCUS: FOOD

and hospitable and is associated with celebrations,” Graca states.

Known through its old branding ‘always open, always good’, Adega had an amazing journey through the 2000s.

But as the pandemic burnt many in hospitality, Adega’s owners suffered.

“A lack of relevance transpired in terms of marketing and repositioning of stores. There was no remodelling, no new look, and the restaurants were no longer relevant. When Covid broke

out, the company that owned the trademark went under,” details Graca.

In August 2020, with fresh ideas and a plan for digitisation, Graca and team purchased the trademark and set about rebuilding Adega.

“We launched a new store in Bedfordview with amazing new branding,” he smiles. “The tiles used are trademarked as our new style and we have had tiles specifically manufactured for different parts of

the store. Any new stores that come into the franchise will have their own unique pattern.”

A new menu was developed, with new drinks, new décor, new processes and systems, and a new ethos – one where a restaurant becomes an entertainment venue as well as a firstclass food venue. A change in eat out culture has installed a new mindset in restaurant owners, and Graca is sure that those who can’t adapt with fail.

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Sage accounting software is one of the world’s most important and favoured solutions for businesses small and large, and in South Africa TMP Consulting (TMP) is an exclusive partner, installing bespoke, tailored packages that allow organisations to run efficiently.

With superior product knowledge, more than a decade of experience, and a blossoming list of testimonials, TMP is the perfect partner for back-office applications.

Adega – South Africa’s Portuguese inspired seafood restaurant chain – approached TMP to assist with an accounting bundle containing the ability to run alongside the company’s new loyalty app. TMP CEO Manoj Jagjivan quickly served up a solution.

“We reviewed the solution from an accounting perspective and realised we needed a third-party application to run stores from a POS perspective. We went back and forth and settled on an accounting Sage ERP package, and we facilitated their entire integration between the POS system and the Sage application. They are now running fully-fledged on Sage 200 Pastel Evolution. They run stock, accounting, month-end financials, and everything else in what is a now a strong, collaborative relationship.”

TMP was established in 2010 to fill a gap in the market for true guidance and support around accounting technology. Operating across Africa, the Johannesburg-based company delivers software solutions, support and service so that clients can focus on their core business. By applying unrivalled industry knowledge to the consulting process, clients can sure that TMP – a Level 1 BBBEE partner - will install the correct product at the best price.

“Accounting is accounting, but how you adapt the software to multiple businesses is the challenge. We are setting up real solutions for different businesses and watching them materialise,” says Jagjivan.

Currently, Adega’s app is linked into the POS system and TMP has incorporated the entire operation onto Sage. “They handle all billing, invoicing, and collection of payments. We are handling the back-office systems and, when everything is tied up from a financial point of view, we integrate to the Sage application and ensure that everything is in balance,” says Jagjivan.

Right now, TMP is busy with a number of new launches across multiple industries, demonstrating its ability to source products to fit different needs. Jagjivan is clear that choosing the right product from such a wide portfolio is business-critical, and this is where TMP can add value.

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INDUSTRY FOCUS: FOOD

VALUABLE EXPERIENCES No longer can restaurants just serve good food. There must be added value, and the food, environment and experience must be special, unique, and memorable.

“Through lockdown, people learned how to cook and people who used to go out every day of the week had to cook at home - and they have become really good at it. That has elevated the expectation and you must provide something that is better than what can be made at home,” says Graca.

Cooking up dishes including prawns drizzled in lemon butter and garlic sauce, world-class seafood platters, delectable chicken, or famous grilled Portuguese steak, Adega describes itself as ‘full of SOL’. The Portuguese word for sun, SOL could refer to bright and beautiful dishes, hot and spicy ingredients, and fresh but warming locations. By investing in these unique characteristics, Adega is breathing new life into the restaurant scene.

“It’s not only Covid that has destroyed restaurants. They have destroyed themselves by not remaining relevant,” declares Graca. “The old way of running a restaurant no longer works

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- you have to offer an unforgettable experience. We have designed the interiors and everything in the restaurants to give new experiences.

People get restaurant fatigue where they go to places that are exactly the same in every town. We have the Adega Lounge with cocktails, lighter lunch meals, a three-tiered premium seafood platter, and a very open feeling. Or you can go into the main restaurant and have traditional Portuguese seafood.

There is a VIP lounge for intimate

moments and special occasions. And every single part of the restaurant has a different vibe. Every time you go to Adega, you can book different areas and experience something new.”

And booking different areas is even easier than it has ever been thanks to the launch of the new Adega app. This loyalty driver is delivering tasty results for Adega as the company quickly builds a database of information around each customer, while customers earn points and unlock rewards. This digital

ADEGA

offering helps to set the company apart, promoting its food and atmosphere while encouraging repeat business.

“It helps us stand out,” admits Graca. “If you look at our reviews, people say that we have world-class food and excellent service. That is the model that we are built on. If you bolt on digital marketing with the launch of our loyalty programme, any franchisee can build their own database. Customers can book tables online and get discounts and rewards. The goal is to unlock incredible value for both the franchisee and most importantly, the customer.”

He says that introducing digital transformation to the business model was one of the most important strategic interventions made when relaunching the brand.

“Fortunately, my background is in marketing and I completed my post graduate study in Digital Marketing. I believe that restaurants have evolved completely – they are not the same anymore. Restaurants became an entertainment destination as they closed all bars and nightclubs. Restaurants are no longer just about eating out. It has become an experience.”

EXPRESS GROWTH The next stage in the regrowth story of this exciting African business with Portuguese flavour is growth: more openings, more app data, more sales, and improved brand recognition.

Having relaunched the brand, the company is busy adopting a fierce community marketing programme, by creating strategic partnerships with hotels, schools and other synergistic

// PEOPLE GET RESTAURANT FATIGUE WHERE THEY GO TO PLACES THAT ARE EXACTLY THE SAME IN EVERY TOWN //

brands. This strategy places the brand within the heart of the community, thereby create a strong foundation for long term loyalty and support Combine fresh ideas with all new systems and you have a recipe for success. Graca, who says the company has already had franchise enquiries from international organisations, is proud of what has been achieved to date. “After opening in Bedfordview, we’ve retained our franchise in Durban, and we are in the process of opening a new franchise in Norwood. We are in negotiations to open a fourth store in a popular location and have achieved all of this since March 2020, through very aggressive lockdowns.”

The company’s cocktails and food offerings are extremely popular, and its environment is modern and lively; Adega is bringing the contemporary offering to the streets of South Africa.

As the company grows, everything is now in place to welcome more people each month.

“We brought in a lot of enthusiasm and a lot of expertise from the other

businesses that we run,” says Graca.

“We installed HR systems, financial systems, operational systems, and a new franchise document was collated – all the necessary elements to run a franchise successfully had to be put in place. When a franchisee comes on board, we are able to go from A-Z and look after everything in the process to ensure success.”

Customer satisfaction is now at the heart of this historic but new offering. Realigning Adega’s relevance, recalibrating functions, and introducing digital focus means that this awardwinning brand is back with a bang and helping to turn a love for food into a lifestyle. A result of the tragic Covid pandemic, Adega’s rebirth is heating up nicely. Expect an explosion of flavour and growth as this brilliant brand reclaims market share.

WWW.ADEGA.CO.ZA

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© Nando’s

NANDO’S SOUTH AFRICA

Nandocas Always at the Heart of

Champion Food Operation PRODUCTION: Leanna Lucas

Famous for creative marketing and inspiring restaurant spaces, Nando’s has always been clear that its success is down to people. Pushing this agenda more than ever, Nando’s in South Africa continues to show how investing in people and family values yields positive results. www.enterprise-africa.net / 61

INDUSTRY FOCUS: HOSPITALITY

//

Nando’s continues to dominate the takeout or quick service food market in South Africa in terms of creativity, innovation, and imagination.

Since its establishment 35 years ago, the company has striven for differentiation through originality and invention. Famed firstly for great food, the PERI-PERI chicken dishes are known internationally for their spicy delight. With options for all eaters, the menu needs no introduction.

For most, this would be enough. But Nando’s is ambitious and has always looked for more. More bright and bold, more heat and flame, and more energy and enthusiasm.

With hundreds of outlets around South Africa, and recognised as the largest food business to grow beyond the

Basha 2019 © Nando’s

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country’s borders, Nando’s boasts fantastic market share and brand recognition.

It’s work beyond the kitchen and restaurant floor is really what moves this from a convenience food offering to iconic and proud South African business. Embracing art, music, culture, and compassion, the Nando’s brand does so much more than chicken.

Mike Cathie, CEO Nando’s South Africa reminds that people are behind the chicken and that is why such an emphasis is placed on generating a welcoming environment.

“Walk into any Nando’s restaurant around the world and not only are you met with the mouth- watering smell of fresh chicken basted in our unique PERi-PERi sauce but you are embraced by the eclectic visual

// NANDO’S IS A COMPANY THAT HAS THE SPIRIT OF THE PEOPLE OF SOUTH AFRICA AT ITS CORE // delight of art and design,” he says.

“At the heart of the Nando’s business is a core value – family. That family goes beyond our employees extending to our partners throughout our value chain. Part of that value chain are the artists and designers we work with from across Southern Africa who produce artwork and furniture for our restaurants all over the world.

“Our passion for designing beautiful restaurants for our guests to enjoy when ordering a takeaway or sitting down to eat with us spurred us on to develop various programmes that celebrate creative expression in multiple forms.”

MUSIC In 2021, Nando’s South Africa partnered with Bridges For Music Academy to offer bursaries to 10 outstanding South African talent. The purpose of the Academy is to make a positive impact on South Africa’s music industry and help to generate an employable and entrepreneurial pipeline of music experts working in different music-related fields from sound engineering and production through to music makers. In line with Nando’s commitment to nurturing young South African creative talent, these bursaries will provide access to a five-month programme that teaches more than just music and attempts to spur entrepreneurialism.

“Music can change someone’s life, I’m a perfect example of this. As much as most of our co-creators (students) are looking at learning music skills at the Academy, they receive more than they expect. Music is just a driver to tap into one’s innate potential and

INDUSTRY FOCUS: HOSPITALITY

find new routes in life. Our goal is to prepare them for the gig economy, so they can become self-sustainable artists or find new ways of generating an income in the creative industries.

We aim for each student to leave with a new mindset and toolkit to be ready for the real world. Working with Nando’s has enabled us to not only give these life-changing opportunities to the students but impact their families and the wider community,” says Thulani Headman, Operations Director and Founding Member of the Bridges Academy.

Without the Nando’s input, these 10 creatives, from disadvantaged backgrounds in Cape Town, would never have the opportunity to express their skill.

// WE BELIEVE THAT ONE OF OUR KEY INGREDIENTS OF SUCCESS IS THE WAY WE LOOK AFTER PEOPLE AND NOT JUST OUR WORLD CLASS FOOD // Internally, Nando’s fondly refers to employees as Nandocas and coFounder Robbie Brozin popularised the expression “it’s the people that make the chicken”; to this day, the Nandocas remain highly valued and encouraged to go beyond their remit to excel.

“Our Nandocas are an incredibly talented group of people whose talents extend beyond what is required for them to work in our

restaurants,” says Internal Brand Experience Manager, Kirsty Niehaus.

Mike Cathie adds: “More than half of our marketing investment is spent on Nandoca’s and making sure their experience of the brand is as powerful as we’d like our guest experience of our brand to be. We believe that one of our key ingredients of success is the way we look after people and not just our world class food. We’re a people business, not a just a restaurant.”

ART In September, Nando’s in Pinecrest KZN was reopened following unrest and looting that damaged businesses around the country. The reopening was described by the company as a ‘rising from the flames, invoking the flames of change’.

“We are a brand that believes in the power of the South African spirit to overcome any hardship and persevere with strength and unity.

Nando’s Pinecrest is a symbol of our commitment to embracing this spirit as one nation and one people,” says Justine Cullinan, Nando’s GM Marketing: Brand Strategy and Communications.

The new look for the restaurant includes work from Nkoali Nawa, a local artist and former mineworker who participated in the Nando’s Art Initiative in partnership with Spier Arts Trust. The Art Initiative develops art programmes that nurture Southern African artists, enabling them to take the next steps not just in their art practice, but in their careers as professionals.

Part of the offering is the Nando’s Creative Exchange. Formed in

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NANDO’S SOUTH AFRICA

2011, the Creative Exchange offers selected artists, with demonstratable exceptional ability, exhibition and mentorship opportunities, sponsors art materials, and gives artists the opportunity to have their work translated into a different medium in collaboration with the Spier Artisan Studios. Nkoali has had work displayed at the AVA Gallery in Cape Town and the Basha Uhuru Freedom Festival in Johannesburg as part of the Creative Exchange. His work will now form the centerpiece in the Pinecrest restaurant. Yet again, Nando’s has positioned creativity and family (especially Nandocas) at the heart of its efforts.

PEOPLE Perhaps the true essence of what being a Nandoca is all about what displayed in July last year when Nando’s Head of Supply Chain, Linda Reddy, set out to summit Mount Kilimanjaro, supporting the caring4girls initiative, part of the Imbumba Foundation. The operation helps to source and distribe sanitary products to under-privileged girls.

Reddy, an outdoor enthusiast and seasoned executive, targeted R180,000 but ended up raising more than R450,000. Her drive came from 2020’s pandemic-forced challenges.

“This pandemic has allowed me to be even more appreciative of all my life’s blessings - from being employed at an amazing company that cares for its people, to the love and support I have with my family and friends, to my good health,” she says.

“As a woman with a daughter, this resonates so much with me. Making a difference in the development of young South African women and giving them the self-esteem and dignity they deserve.”

Her success will support more than 2500 girls over 12-months.

Currently, the Imbumba Foundation supports over one million Caring4Girls beneficiaries throughout South

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Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Lesotho, Mozambique, eSwatini and Tanzania.

“Nando’s is a company that has the spirit of the people of South Africa at its core,” concludes Mike Cathie.

In December 2021, Nando’s opened in the Mall of Africa. This flagship restaurant is decked out with some of the finest South African art and boasts pieces from up-andcoming names including MashT, The Urbanative, Wiid design, Vogel, Naturalist. The new site has also been running the company’s ‘Swerve the Randemic’ promotion where guests can get meals for under R50.

Erika Smit, Nando’s GM: Regional Marketing says: “We are so proud of the space and thrilled to be part of the Mall of Africa family. We look

forward to welcoming our guests into this beautiful restaurant.”

Even now, in harsh economic conditions, Nando’s is the envy of the industry with its continued growth and ingenious marketing. There’s no stopping this South African powerhouse as it continues to thrive at home ion SA, where the fire began.

WWW.NANDOS.CO.ZA

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DW FRESH PRODUCE

The Value of Produce

Fresh from the Farm PRODUCTION: Leanna Lucas

DW Fresh Produce is a market agency operating on fresh produce markets since 2006, delivering the highest-quality service to buyers. It saw a surge in demand for its vast produce offering, from fruit and vegetables to potatoes and onions, as the pandemic induced a health-conscious consumption revolution, with the belief in the power of local sourcing firmly at its root.

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INDUSTRY FOCUS: AGRICULTURE

//

The Tshwane Market and Johannesburg Fresh Produce Market is a unique commerce centre, where prices are formed and fresh produce is traded to the mutual benefit of suppliers, buyers and consumers. Produce is procured from producers country-wide, while on the supply side the market is supported by buyers from all walks of life not only from South Africa, but neighbouring countries, too. Prices are formulated on the basis of supply and demand which then set the trend for costs nationally.

Markets are often referred to as ‘the stock exchange’ of the fresh produce industry, and today the Tshwane Fresh Product Market is South Africa’s

// PUT SIMPLY, WE DO THINGS SMARTER, BETTER, SIMPLER AND FASTER THAN THE OPPOSITION // 68 / www.enterprise-africa.net

second largest, enjoying a national and international client-base. In October 2006 DW Fresh made its trading debut as one of eight market agencies at this renowned world leader in the provision of fresh produce, finding a home in its recently developed wholesale facility which afforded the ideal, one-stop location for the nascent agent to grow into South Africa’s choice in fresh goods.

“We remain a major agency stakeholder in the Tshwane Fresh Products Market,” MD Theresa Fredericks opens, “offering the best service in the field to all suppliers and buyers to make an indelible mark on the South African fresh production industry.” DW Fresh is present today in South Africa’s two biggest markets, with its Tshwane presence having been significantly bolstered by its later installation in Johannesburg.

“We pride ourselves on having fresh products of unrivalled quality available year-round, with a satisfied end consumer guaranteed,” summarises Fredericks. “At DW Fresh we are driven

by the end goals of stimulating supply and demand, and providing the best possible product to the end consumers.”

FRESHNESS FOR ALL COMERS More than 15 years in, Fredericks runs us through the inner workings of a more than 100-strong operation, which has been able to retain a gloriously rustic, down-to-earth aspect even as it has burgeoned to take in growers spanning the entire country. “At its root, our business entails DW Fresh’s selling of fresh produce on behalf of farmers, which comes to us from across South Africa,” she explains. “Ranging from fruit to vegetable, potatoes and onion, this wide range of wares is brought to what is essentially a vast open wall, subdivided into different agencies on the platform.

“The farmer then decides to whom they wish to sell their produce, and offloads it onto our floor to allow us to begin the process of selling it on their behalf, for which we in turn receive a commission.” The growers are then regularly remunerated,

DW FRESH PRODUCE

// FROM A BUSINESS PERSPECTIVE WE HAVE HAD TWO MORE THAN POSITIVE YEARS IN SPITE OF THE PANDEMIC // Fredericks furthers, with the financial side watertight in its security and a key example of DW Fresh combining age-old procedures with inescapable modernisation. “The processing of funds is actually almost identical to what happens when a house is sold,” she explains. “The money that is made through the sales of this produce is held within and tightly regulated by a trust fund, to make this vital undertaking as secure as possible.

“We consider our producers the most important link in the valuable chain of fresh produce,” Fredericks asserts, a commitment which engenders a whole host of valueadded services and support. “We keep the farmers fully updated throughout the course of our selling their products, providing peace of mind through daily faxes and communications regarding sales and stock movements, and make electronic payments twice weekly as sales are made.

“We also deal with the processing of fees and service costs to third parties, such as transporters, for example, and employ CHEP’s Material Handling Systems Optimisation to optimise our supply chain and packing processes.

It means that we operate with greater efficiency, more throughput and overall better productivity.”

Started by Fredericks as a husband-and-wife outfit, DW Fresh experienced year after year of solid growth and forged relationships with the country’s best growers, rapidly gaining an enviable reputation for the care and expertise on which producers could count to secure healthy sales.

In 2017, this culminated in its joining the famous Subtropico Group, with its focus on investing in key service sectors in South Africa such as agritech, livestock and, of course, fresh produce market agencies.

“Joining the Subtropico group was crucial to our gaining greater exposure,” Fredericks stresses, “but what was also vital was that even in joining forces with it, the DW Fresh entity and identity, and everything that goes along with that, was able to remain as strong as ever.” This exposure caused

TOGETHER FOR A FRUITFUL FUTURE

From the lush and fertile Vyeboom valley, Cortina Farms – the Myburgh Family’s productive apple and pear operation – delivers 100 hectares of South Af rica’s finest f ruit. Driving the region’s fruit marketing and distribution industry for two generations, the Myburgh Family control an efficient and professional farming, packing, marketing, and distribution model which brings delicious deciduous fruits to customers far and wide. Through Starking Fruit Packers CC, the organisation contributes to transformation as an established BBBEE business.

Cortina Farms is proud to partner with DW Fresh and look forward to a fruitful future together

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INDUSTRY FOCUS: AGRICULTURE

reverberations far and wide, she goes on. “Today, our buyers are not limited to within South Africa,” she reveals.

“People come from every corner of the SADC - from Botswana, Angola and Zimbabwe, for example - to make their purchases from us, simply because our range of fresh produce eclipses that which is normally available to them.”

FRESH AND HEALTHY FOCUS Contrary to so many, fresh produce was one of a very fortunate very few sectors left relatively unscathed by the pandemic’s shockwaves. Already accounting for almost a quarter of total farming revenue in South Africa, demand was intensified for a broad range of fresh fruit and vegetables as consumers actively sought fresher choices more conducive to their overall health and wellness.

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// WE CONSIDER OUR PRODUCERS THE MOST IMPORTANT LINK IN THE VALUABLE CHAIN OF FRESH PRODUCE // The agricultural sector was exempt from lockdown restrictions, while growth in the fresh produce sector was underpinned by this surge in demand and by the higher export prices provided by the weak exchange rate. DW Fresh saw first-hand the evidence of this sustained spike, Fredericks explains, as a countrywide renewed focus on wellbeing sustained an increase in consumption by health-conscious consumers and sales boomed. “For us, the main challenges were essentially twofold: bringing our operation in line with the new protocols, and ensuring that both clients and colleagues stringently adhered to them,”

she elaborates. “With this assured and everyone on board, against all the odds 2020 actually gave us our best ever year to date.

“We saw a huge increase in sales during the peak lockdown period, as people preferred to stay at home to prepare and cook meals, either without the option or choosing not to eat out.

It was a time when nutritional aspects became even more important, too, which was key to supporting pricing on our side.

“From a business perspective, we have certainly had two more than positive years in spite of the pandemic.”

DW FRESH PRODUCE

There are many widely reported additional benefits to eating fruits and vegetables sourced locally. Eating in season means exclusive access to produce with a higher nutritional value, as foods grown out of season are not able to follow natural ripening rhythms, and goes a long way toward ensuring

// WE ARE DRIVEN BY THE END GOALS OF STIMULATING SUPPLY AND DEMAND, AND PROVIDING THE BEST POSSIBLE PRODUCT TO THE END CONSUMER //

a varied, nutritional diet. “For us, procurement does not extend beyond the borders of South Africa,” Fredericks confirms. “Everything is sourced locally and that also serves to make us unique.

“For example, in Johannesburg one of our most important growers is Richard Myburgh, 100% BEE owner of Cortina Farms, who supplies us with apples, pears and peaches and brings nearly three decades of experience in the marketing and distribution of deciduous fruit in the domestic and export industry.”

Standing out and reinventing has been part of the DW Fresh culture throughout, as it heads towards two decades of dominance in this most crowded of South African markets.

“When I came to the business it was as a female owner in what was a very white, male-dominated industry,” Fredericks

reveals. “I applied for a space on the trading floor and that is how I started, through the advancement of economic transformation in South Africa.

“Today, DW Fresh continues to set itself apart through ensuring excellence in everything we do,” she concludes, “in our bid to provide quality, costeffective fresh produce and strategic competitive service to each and every one of our customers in the fresh produce sector. Put simply, our success has always lain in doing things smarter, better, simpler and faster than the opposition, and we don’t plan to change that anytime soon.”

WWW.DWFRESH.CO.ZA

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LETŠENG DIAMONDS

Presiding Over a Kingdom of Gems PRODUCTION: Timothy Reeder

Located high in the Maluti Mountains of the Kingdom of Lesotho, Letšeng Diamond Mine boasts a legacy of exceptional recoveries and huge volumes to which it adds tirelessly. The recent appointment of two Lesotho nationals to senior executive roles within the company evinces a long-standing commitment to developing local talent, while the robust standing of owner Gem Diamonds results from zero disruption to proceedings throughout the global turmoil.

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INDUSTRY FOCUS: MINING

//

Lesotho has enjoyed a long and prosperous relationship with diamonds since the very first discovery in 1957. A few years later came the establishment of a small, yet weighty, mining industry, which took off during the 1960s and 1970s when the country’s mines yielded several large gems and came to employ thousands of people.

Peter Nixon discovered the Letšeng-la-Terai Kimberlite Pipes, made up of the Main Pipe and the Satellite Pipe, in 1957, during some work undertaken in the area. This was

officially designated a ‘government digging’ in 1959, and by 1967 there were up to 6,000 local diggers on the site. The pipes are estimated to have produced 63,000 carats during this time, including the 601-carat Lesotho Brown.

The mine was later officially opened in November 1977 and scheduled to have a mine life of eight years; it in fact closed after five, in 1982, yet even from this brief foray a final production total of some 272,840 carats was recorded, recovered from 9.4 million tonnes of kimberlite and mainly sourced from the locality’s lucrative Main Pipe.

LESOTHO’S BRIGHTEST GEM Letšeng Diamonds’s formation followed in 1995, beginning life as a partnership between industry investors and the Lesotho Government, each holding 76% and 24% respectively. In 1999 it acquired the mining rights for the colossal Letšeng Mine, situated over 3,000 metres above sea level in the Maluti Mountains of the Kingdom of Lesotho and said to be occupy the highest position of any mine in the world.

In July 2006, Gem Diamonds committed US$118.5 million to purchase the 76% majority portion

ALLIANCE: PROTECTING YOUR BUSINESS IS OUR PRIORITY OUR STORY: Formerly known as Alliance Insurance Company, Alliance was founded in 1993 with the vision of creating a unique insurance financial solutions entity. The company, now called Alliance Group Investment Holding Company Limited has since then, expanded its business to offer different solutions which are tailor-made specifically for Basotho and their way of life. One of our financial strengths is evidenced by claims payout ability. Over the past 5 years, we paid claims under Short Term Insurance amounting to M327,207,238.23 for the losses our clients incurred, which restored them as closely as possible to their financial position before the loss.

BUSINESS SOLUTIONS: We offer innovative risk and wealth creation financial solutions to all businesses, in Lesotho.

Short Term Insurance: We protect your valuable assets with competitively priced insurance for buildings, plant and machinery, contents, motor vehicles, construction work and livestock.

Other Specialist business solutions CONSTRUCTION & ENGINEERING INSURANCE: A successful construction project involves many different groups of people working together on a single objective. As a result, no matter the size of your project, there are several different risks that need to be considered. Focus on your project with the peace of mind that you are financially protected against loss and damage.

Construction Bonds & Guarantees: We offer a wide spectrum of construction bonds and guarantees to the construction industry including customs bonds as an enabler to the infrastructural development of the country. We cater for small, medium to multinational construction companies by providing these securities. The following list is a cross section of some of the bond/guarantees available from Alliance: • Bid Bonds • Performance Bonds

• Advance Payment Bonds • Temporary importation Bonds

• Retention Bonds

Employee Benefits: To maintain a decent quality of life after working years, we introduced the First licensed Umbrella Fund in Lesotho. The fund can be joined by multiple and unrelated employers for their most important assetsemployees. The fund not only offers retirement savings benefits, but also risk benefits such as life cover, disability cover, income protection, critical illness, and funeral cover, because we know how unpredictable life events are.

For more information, you can contact us on www.alliance.co.ls or info@alliance.co.ls

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LETŠENG DIAMONDS

of Letšeng Diamonds owned by Letšeng Investment Holdings, and today Letšeng Diamonds has two shareholders; the government of the Kingdom of Lesotho retains 30% of the operation following the finalising of the sale and issued share capital having been appropriately apportioned.

“We are committed to being a world-class diamond company, respected globally for optimising shareholder value through quality diamond processes, products and social responsibility,” Letšeng sets forth.

“We continue to deliver exceptional returns for its shareholders, with annual production rising since the takeover from 55,000 carats in 2006 to 115,122 carats in 2021.”

The two kimberlite pipes from which Letšeng processes around 6.17 million tonnes of ore annually, the Main and the Satellite, are a duo bearing extremely low-grade ore averaging under two carats per hundred tonnes, as well as from existing stockpiles. Letšeng has grown to be one of the largest open pit diamond mines in the world

// GEM DIAMONDS HAS DELIVERED POSITIVE OPERATIONAL AND FINANCIAL RESULTS NOTWITHSTANDING THE CONTINUED CHALLENGES OF THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC //

and has gained widespread acclaim for its recovery of large, high quality, exceptional Type II diamonds, aided by initiatives undertaken in 2017 to unlock additional value at Letšeng which included reduced diamond breakage initiative projects, and a mining optimisation project.

“Letšeng Diamond Mine is famous for its large, top-quality diamonds,” Letšeng proudly states, “with the highest percentage of large diamonds making it the highest dollar value per carat kimberlite diamond mine in the world.”

Letšeng is no stranger to the production of historic diamonds, with the mine responsible for five of the 20 largest white gem diamonds ever recovered. In August 2011 the 550-carat Letšeng Star white diamond became Letšeng’s fourth major recovery since Gem Diamonds’s 2006 takeover, having

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INDUSTRY FOCUS: MINING

been preceded by the 478-carat Leseli la Letšeng (‘Light of Letšeng’) in 2008, the 493-carat Letšeng Legacy in 2007 and the 603-carat Lesotho Promise in 2006.

This latter was the largest to be found in the 21st century to date, and just eclipsed the 601-carat Lesotho Brown recovered in 1967.

Then, in January 2018, along came the Lesotho Legend, an exceptional

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diamond weighing in at 910-carat and labelled, “a landmark recovery for all of Gem Diamonds’ stakeholders,” by Gem Diamonds CEO Clifford Elphick.

Another for the Letšeng books, the 442-carat high-quality type II diamond recovered in August 2020 had the honour of being the first of over 400 carats to be recovered since the Lesotho Legend, described as a

beautiful, elongated white stone.

Letšeng Diamonds CEO Kelebone Leisanyane was keen to convey the shared benefits it would bring, coming on the heels of a suite of retrievals ranging from 23- to 163-carat. “Letšeng Diamonds is grateful to the Government of Lesotho for showing confidence in the mining industry during these difficult times of the COVID-19 pandemic,” he commented, “and for having designated mining as an essential service in an effort to keep the wheels of the economy rolling.

“The recovery of this remarkable 442-carat diamond, one of the world’s largest gem-quality diamonds to be recovered this year, will contribute immensely to the fiscus in the form of taxes, royalties and dividends, with a portion of the proceeds from the sale to fund a special community project.”

LETŠENG DIAMONDS

OPERATIONAL AND FINANCIAL PROGRESS Long known for its commitment to the development of local talent within the company, the appointment of Motooane Thinyane and Makhomo Motaung, to the role of Head of Operations and Head of Finance respectively, ensures that every one of Letšeng Diamonds’s senior executive roles is now occupied by a Lesotho National. “I am happy to report that with the appointment of Ntate Thinyane and ‘M’e ‘Makhomo, the entire executive management of Letšeng Diamonds is now made up of Basotho,” said Leisanyane.

It means that Letšeng is moving forward with a further combined 35 years’ experience in local enterprise and specialist positions, as Gem Diamonds’s results show it continuing to go from strength to strength.

Revenue rose to US$201.9 million from US$189.6 million in 2020, to produce profits from continuing operations of US$31.1 million compared to US$27.5 million.

Operationally there was much to celebrate, too, with 2021’s 115,335 carats dwarfing the 100,780 carats of 2020, and treated ore rising to 6.2 million tonnes.

“Gem Diamonds has delivered positive operational and financial results notwithstanding the continued challenges brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic on the availability of skills, equipment, spares and other aspects of the supply chain,” assessed Clifford Elphick. “One of the Group’s priorities in 2021 was to safeguard its employees, contractors and surrounding communities from COVID-19 and it was able to operate uninterrupted throughout the year.

“The continuing recovery of the diamond market in 2021 was evidenced by the robust prices achieved for Letšeng’s large, highvalue diamonds and there was also a significant improvement in the prices achieved for smaller diamonds. This resulted in positive cash flows and allowed Gem Diamonds to end the year in a strong financial position,” Elphick finished, with understandable positivity. “The Group has continued its climate change journey and our science-based approach will stand us in good stead over the coming years in managing the physical and transition risks, as we explore the opportunities that climate change might bring to our operations.”

WWW.LETSENGDIAMONDS.CO.LS

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CURO FUND SERVICES

Future-Focussed Finance Digitisation PRODUCTION: Timothy Reeder

For more than a decade, Curo has been finessing the investment administration processes that underpin and facilitate investment house offerings. Now South Africa’s largest third-party administrator, Curo’s ethos of coupling technology with expertise is powering a drive towards digital and embracing cutting-edge finance mechanisms.

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INDUSTRY FOCUS: FINANCE

//

A proudly South African, multifaceted and fine-tuned solution provider, at its core Curo sets out to provide administration services that cover the entire lifecycle of an investment. Two overarching ideas have guided Curo in its ascent to the top of this critical industry, as it makes plain. “We invest in great people with deep expertise, and secondly, we remain responsive to our customers’ dynamic needs.” Curo possesses a wide range of cost-effective, outsourced investment management solutions, with an integrated and scalable platform giving clients a crucial competitive edge.

“We have been in operation for more than a decade to become one of the largest providers in the South African market,” Curo asserts. “Our wellestablished track record is founded on the principles of specialised investment expertise and market-leading flexibility, alongside a comprehensive investment administration service covering life products, pension and retirement funds,

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medical aid funds, collective investment schemes and hedge funds.

“At the heart of Curo is our relentless drive to take care of, look after and effectively manage the investment administration of our clients.”

EXCELLENCE PAST AND PRESENT Curo has long been at odds with the desire on the part of many new entrants into the market to bundle fund administration services in along with their core offerings, and has resolutely maintained its singular focus in order to remain the obvious choice.

“We believe it’s hard for an organisation to be world-class with a diluted focus,” it explains. “Our resolve has strengthened to continue providing brilliant fund administration services at exceptional value, as we have done for all our valued clients.”

From its acquisition back in 2012 by the two financial services heavyweights of Sanlam and Old Mutual, Curo was swiftly set up as a fund administrator before experiencing a remarkable rise

// AT THE HEART OF CURO IS OUR RELENTLESS DRIVE TO TAKE CARE OF, LOOK AFTER AND EFFECTIVELY MANAGE THE INVESTMENT ADMINISTRATION OF OUR CLIENTS // to prominence in the South African space, eclipsing two trillion rand in assets under administration within its inaugural two years and holding more than 30% of the country’s top asset mangers as clients by 2015.

A culture of success that bleeds right through the organisation to this day, last year Curo once again achieved Top Employer status, confirming its place among the ranks of companies who have successfully negotiated the exacting global best practice certification process to achieve this accolade. The Top Employer Institute has certified nearly 2000 companies in 120 countries globally, and Curo now joins a select group of fewer than 100 South African businesses similarly certified.

“It is a satisfying achievement for Curo to be part of the global community of organisations to be certified as a ‘Top Employer’,” confirmed HR Executive Mandla Dlova, “as it affirms our strategic progress towards excellence in the conditions and opportunities created for our people. The Top Employer assessment and associated Certification forms part of our strategic Human Resource Management initiatives, designed to enhance our employee offering using distinctive insights aligned to the world’s best HR practices and developments.

“Such initiatives support our aim of remaining an employer of choice in our industry.”

Simple Solutions to Solve Complex Problems A single, global platform to help the world’s leading fund administrators, asset managers, insurance companies and pension funds achieve increased operational efficiency, whilst reducing risk.

Get in touch To learn more about Temenos Multifonds visit: temenos.com/fund-administration Contact us at info@temenos.com

INDUSTRY FOCUS: FINANCE

Phase one of Curo’s complete office revamp and overhaul, completed last April, plays a vital role in breathing new life into the space occupied by the business since 2005. More than this, it ensures that those staff of whom it is famed for taking such good care continue to enjoy the very utmost in professional surroundings and environment. The revamp project forms part of the broader business strategy of a hybrid office model, with the first phase entailing the creation of a new reception and guest waiting area, boardroom, meeting rooms and a project room.

“We have done well to progress through the Covid-19 lockdown and, in some areas, have made use of the time to capitalise on the period by

fast-tracking future-forward aspects of our business,” outlined Darren Botha, Business Development Executive, with the move to a hybrid office model a crowning glory amid numerous such initiatives. “Through this revamp, the model has been extended into our office space to re-orientate our physical workspace to align with our company vision, mission and values and, indeed, our future.”

EMBRACING DIGITAL LANDSCAPE Curo is as good as synonymous with technology, and its astute application.

“Coupled with expertise, it means that we are geared to support the fast-paced investment industry,” the company explains. South Africa has itself for a long time been at the forefront of

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digitisation and collaboration, and both have been integral parts of Curo’s strategy throughout its lifetime. “We are in the process of overhauling processes, removing unnecessary human intervention and reducing risk,” Botha reveals.

“Technology is an important aspect of our business so we are introducing high levels of automation, seamless processing and integration between front and back office.” The innovation, creativity and drive to create value abundantly evident at Curo was recognised last year at the Global Business Outlook awards as it brought home the coveted Best Use of Technology in Fund Administration prize. “Our mission is to enhance consumers’ financial dreams and goals,” summated Botha, “by providing our clients with reliable services through innovative means and domain expertise.”

These multitude factors converge to see new MD and CEO Lance Jacobs

CURO FUND SERVICES

// INTELLIGENT AUTOMATION IS CHANGING THE LANDSCAPE FOR MANY INVESTMENT INDUSTRY BUSINESSES // take up post at the perfect time to drive this mission, already having proven instrumental in improving service standards within Curo, and creating a formidable team, centrally focused on the customer and delivery.

As the executive responsible for all aspects of operations, client services and operational technology, furthermore, in close collaboration with colleagues Lance has been behind the concerted and ambitious push to digitise and modernise the Curo administration platform.

Market developments and the impact of COVID-19 have accelerated the digitalisation of currencies, markets and societies in general, and Curo is at arguably the zenith of its own digitalisation journey. Completing the

first phase migration of funds from its five legacy systems, banking software company Temenos announced last year that Curo Fund Services had gone live with Temenos Multifonds Global Accounting platform.

The move transformed Curo’s operating model, simplifying its architecture and enabling more automated exception-based processing to increase efficiencies, reduce costs and open up new opportunities for growth. “Two years ago, we started a partnership with international industry leader Temenos to move funds to a new accounting platform,” concludes Botha. “We are in the process of migrating more than 3000 funds from our legacy fund accounting platforms to a single

global accounting platform which we have branded the Atlas Platform.

“We view this technology platform not just through the traditional lens of efficiency and cost, but the future opportunities it can create by facilitating entry into new markets, new and innovative services and new business opportunities. The switch further helps to provide cost effectiveness and delivery of quality, best-in-class services for clients.

“It’s undeniable that the future is indeed digital,” Botha closes.

“While some form of technological intervention has always been around, more and more, intelligent automation is changing the landscape for many investment industry businesses.”

WWW.CUROFUND.COM

www.enterprise-africa.net / 83

DBSA

Igniting Sustainable Development

and Transformative Change PRODUCTION: Timohty Reeder

For the Development Bank of South Africa (DBSA) sustainability is at the forefront, as it promotes economic growth in South Africa and across sub-Saharan Africa. In the current push for net zero its commitment is borne out in multiple ways, with massive investments in key programmes and tireless support of a low-carbon economy fulfilling its central role in driving a just transition.

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INDUSTRY FOCUS: FINANCE

//

“Our purpose,” explains the DBSA, “is to build Africa’s prosperity by driving inclusive growth and securing innovative solutions that drive socio-economic development in emerging economies in sub-Saharan Africa.” The company fulfils this ambitious mandate by first mobilising funding resources, and subsequently channelling these into projects aimed at building sustainable infrastructure planning and development across the continent.

Among the leading African Development Finance Institutions (DFIs), the DBSA was established in 1983 with primary focus areas of energy, water, transport and telecommunications, as well as interests in health and education.

“We aim to deliver impactful development finance solutions that ignite transformative change in South Africa and on the rest of the continent.

Improving the quality of life of people in Africa is the fundamental focus of our development impact,” the DBSA details.

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“We aim to bend the arc of history towards shared prosperity through multifaceted investments in sustainable infrastructure and human capacity development.”

INVESTMENTS PAY OFF Having amassed more than three decades of experience in driving transformational change for different types of infrastructure development, the DBSA is now partner of choice for some of the continent’s most impactful development projects. In June last year came the conclusion of two loan facility agreements between Trans-Caledon Tunnel Authority (TCTA) and the DBSA, totalling R5.5 billion and spanning 20 years, to spark the implementation of Phase II of the Lesotho Highlands Water Project (LHWP).

The investment was negotiated with the five major banks in South Africa for a total of over R15 billion, with the DBSA’s funding to be used for new infrastructure development

integral in ensuring water security across South Africa.

With significance beyond the benefit to the overall Vaal River System, the transaction strengthens the ongoing cooperation between these two influential parties, furthering their mutual water infrastructure mandates, while with water and sanitation representing one of the DBSA’s key focus sectors, the deal serves to significantly bolster its loan book. It in turn allows TCTA to

// OUR FUTUREFOCUSED STRATEGY IS REINFORCING THE RESILIENCE AND RELEVANCE OF THE DBSA IN A WORLD OF DISRUPTION AND CHANGE //

DBSA

// AS A LEADING DFI IN THE REGION, THE DBSA IS WELL PLACED TO ENSURE THAT A TRANSITION TO A NET ZERO TARGET IS A JUST TRANSITION //

and highly developmental project for both South Africa and Lesotho,” acknowledged Zodwa Mbele, DBSA Group Executive. “The anticipated economic shift speaks to significant combined GDP impact of about R245 billion in the two countries, additional water supply to support about 60% of the South African economy and incremental royalties to the Kingdom of Lesotho, which are key to its fiscus and national economy.”

Now in its ninth month of construction, the 100MW Redstone monolith is a concentrated solar thermal power (CSP) plant forming a fundamental part of the South African Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer (REIPP) Procurement Program. Its backing, to a total of R11.6 billion, also makes it the largest renewable energy investment in

fulfil its flagship role as a bulk water infrastructure implementing and national funding agency of the South African government.

“This is a significant transaction and as the DBSA, we are proud to be instrumental in the continued implementation of this historical

South Africa to date, with the DBSA’s commitments totalling R1.91billion - R1.5 billion in senior debt and R410 million in equity-linked funding.

Redstone CSP will power 200,000 households with clean and reliable electricity upon completion and offset an estimated 440 metric tons of CO2 emissions per year; it has now notched up a crucial milestone in the form of its first debt drawdown, securing in the region of $152 million and further solidifying the commercial viability of CSP technology in enhancing clean energy generation.

“The African Development Bank is privileged and proud to play the MLA and Coordinating Bank’s role for this largest renewable project in South Africa alongside our partners ABSA, CDC, DBSA, DEG, FMO, Investec, Nedbank, and Sanlam,” resumed

TAKING YOUR PROJECTS TO NEW HEIGHTS

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Infraconsult Engineering is honoured and proud to be associated with the Development Bank of South Africa as a preferred Professional Service Provider. We truly appreciate the high level of professionalism and efficiency with which the DBSA as a Client Body executes and implements its projects.

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www.enterprise-africa.net / 87 Principal: Monro Jansen

INDUSTRY FOCUS: FINANCE

Director General of the Southern African Region Leila Mokaddem.

“It reflects our shared objectives of supporting the energy transition to address the threat of climate change across Africa.”

JUST TRANSITION COMMITMENT In all that it does, the DBSA evinces its commitment, through activities and initiatives that contribute towards the global greenhouse emissions target, to playing an active role in the transition to net zero by 2050. “We are developing an integrated sustainability approach,” the DBSA outlines. “As a leading DFI in the region, the DBSA is well placed to ensure that a transition to a net zero target is a Just Transition.”

Providing transition finance, while eschewing new fossil fuel investments not part of a clear and unambiguous plan to a decarbonised future, is key here. Exemplifying this is the DBSA’s

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Green Fund, instituted to contribute towards a wide range of goals in transitioning to a greener economy.

These include the financing of projects and programmes that reduce the impact on climate change and favouring high-impact, innovative, low-carbon, inclusive programmes.

“The DBSA has made a concerted effort to address climate change and contribute to the broader lowcarbon aspirations of South Africa and the rest of Africa by supporting and investing in initiatives aimed at climate change mitigation and adaptation. The DBSA was instrumental

DBSA

in the development of the Renewable Energy Independent Power Producers Programme (REIPPP) by funding the establishment and administration of the Independent Power Producer Office resulting in investments of over R200 billion and the creation of 50,000 jobs in the REIPPP.” A solid set of results for the financial year ending 31 March 2021,

// WE WILL CONTINUE TO FOCUS ON DISBURSING TO INFRASTRUCTURE PROJECTS TO GROW DEVELOPMENTAL IMPACT IN LINE WITH OUR MANDATE //

in the face of the havoc wreaked by the COVID-19 pandemic, kept the DBSA firmly on course to pursue its growth strategy designed to augment disbursements through emphasis on its catalytic role. “This is aimed at contributing to sustainable infrastructure development beyond the confines of its own balance sheet,” the bank stressed.

“Our continued success hinges on our ability to grow developmental impact using our own balance sheet and partnering with others,” assessed Patrick Dlamini, DBSA CEO. “The bank has a healthy pipeline of projects that form a solid springboard for success in the future and we will continue to focus on disbursing to infrastructure projects to grow developmental impact in line with our mandate.”

The DBSA saw net profit for the year increase by 182% from approximately R504m in the prior year

to R1.4 billion in 2021, attributed to the core lending activities of the bank.

Solid growth in net interest income amounted to 11% compared to the prior year and an 8% improvement in operating income to R5.1 billion for 2021. Significant adjustments to accommodate the impact of COVID-19 also allowed impairment charges to reduce by 68% compared to 2020.

“We are operating in a rapidly transitioning world,” Dlamini sums up, “and the DBSA is mindful of how this impacts the sustainability of our business. Consequently, our futurefocused strategy is reinforcing the resilience and relevance of the bank in a world of disruption and change.”

WWW.DBSA.ORG

www.enterprise-africa.net / 89

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