KZN Invest 9

KZN WINTER 2020

INVEST

Corporate care Mondi SA CEO Viv McMenamin on leadership in a crisis

CONNECT COMMUNICATE COLLABORATE

Innovation Getting over the jargon jitters

Shipping

KZN ports battered by pandemic and local lethargy

ISSUE 09

Beer

How many Zulu Blondes does it take to brand KZN?

Spirit of Survival HOSPITALITY SPECIAL

KNOW YOUR DURBAN # D u r b a n H a s M o r e # K n o w Yo u r D u r b a n

Now is the best time for locals to explore their city and surrounds. Discover the outdoor beauty of Durban as Level three of lockdown has seen some nature reserves and restaurants opening and are ready to welcome you. Venture out and enjoy Durban – but Durban Tourism urges you to keep safe during this time.

E info@visitdurban.travel

 031 322 4164

Wear your mask, practice social distancing, wash your hand and sanitise.

There is still a lot more to explore #DurbanHasMore #KnowYourDurban

Stay Safe and Travel Later. ďƒź www.visitdurban.travel

WT

@dbntourism

W H AT ’ S I N S I D E

Issue 09 WINTER 2020

COVER IMAGE: Antonia Deabreu and Marcelle Roberts.

PICTURE: SEBASTIAN NICO www.sebthelensman.com

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EDITOR Greg ArdŽ PRODUCTION EDITOR Lorna King DESIGNER Kyle Griffin ADVERTISING Gaylene Diedericks 081 707 6313 GENERAL MANAGER Doody Adams CONTRIBUTORS Shirley le Guern Matthew Hattingh Shelley Seid

Copyright: All material in this issue is subject to copyright and belongs to Famous Publishing unless otherwise indicated.

No part of the material may be quoted, photocopied, reproduced or stored by an electronic system without prior written permission from Famous Publishing.

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18 Guest column Viv McMenamin, CEO of Mondi South Africa

- 08 Innovation

Getting the jargon jitters

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Big hitter backs KZN brand Thrive pharmacies

Disclaimer: While every effort is taken to ensure the accuracy of the contents of this publication, neither the authors nor the publisher will bear any responsibility for the consequences of any actions based on information contained herein. Neither do they endorse any products/services advertised herein. Material which appears under ‘Advertorial’ is paid for.

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Published by Famous Publishing, 52 Mahogany Road, Mahogany Ridge, Westmead, Durban, 3610. 031 714 4700 www.famouspublishing.co.za Printed by Novus Print (Pty)

28 - 06 -

INVEST

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Flying a flag for the environment

Riding the storm

Don Bailey

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- 16 Hospitality

Many stories of hope and survival

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Ports in a storm Challenging time

Container giant MSC weathers the storm

Property needs to pivot quickly Time to do things differently

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Don’t micromanage talent Grant Gavin

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Turning fear to hope

Motivation in The Middle

Shilpa Mehta

Travis Gale’s motivational journey

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One to watch Ravi Nadasen: From hotels to private schools

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Save our health Rivers are our responsibility

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Beer & blondes ain’t no joke The man behind Zulu Blonde

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Issue 09

WINTER 2020

ED’S LETTER

The SPIRIT that defines us

a government to serve, not create an army of fat cats wouldn’t have Cyril Ramaphosa’s job for all the preoccupied with self-service. Now is the time, more than tea in China. Sometimes I imagine he’d rather not ever, when we have to demand this. We always have the have it either. Fancy being the head of the motley right, nay the duty, to ask how every taxpayer’s cent is spent crew he leads. Some cabinet ministers are serial and about the wisdom of decisions made. under-performers who couldn’t run a spaza shop, At a time when people are dying of Covid-19 and poverty, contributing towards the view that the government hasn’t every decent person who calls South Africa home wants to covered itself in glory. And that was before the pandemic. make a positive contribution, to help Cyril Now in a life and death struggle we have to Ramaphosa’s best efforts to lead us through take direction from many people who do not this crisis. I pray he’s up to this challenge and enjoy public confidence. We have no choice creates the space for this. It is heartbreaking but to obey their often bizarre edicts in a to see how so many good people are trying so time of crisis. hard to keep businesses afloat, battling to save Excuse me, this is not meant to be a plug lives and livelihoods. Which is why Antonia and apologies if it comes across as shameless Deabreu and Marcelle Roberts grace the cover self-promotion, but I published a book a week of this edition. They are cheerful, industrious before this magazine went to print, entitled and tenacious. Hospitality is the face of the War Party – about how the ANC’s political tourism industry, one that KZN is so deeply killings are breaking South Africa. It explores invested in and for all the right reasons. The the party’s cadre deployment and how it has sector is reeling, but we have moved from inextricably entwined the ruling party and the bug-eyed terror at the pandemic to roundstate; how ANC battles have created a monster gregarde@gmail.com the-clock engagement on how to survive the of competing patronage networks; often onslaught. There are other important sectors of the KZN resulting in murder. economy also hit by the pandemic, but if one sector shows I wouldn’t mention it but for the fact that the book shows heart right now it is hospitality. I would have liked to have that some of the ANC’s harshest critics are in the ANC. Some dedicated the entire magazine to these stories of hope and of the most heartening responses to the book show how other, similarly deserving tales. They represent the spirit that people cherish our democracy and are prepared to hold will help us survive. those in power to account. They want an honest government and a vibrant civil society and a strong and independent media. They want scrutiny of public accounts, they want

A D V E RTO R I A L

VITALAB journey to parenthood A sizeable investment in a state-of-the-art fertility clinic in uMhlanga will boost the medical expertise in KZN and give hope to couples desperate to start a family

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any KZN residents who have not been able to find local specialists now have access to Johannesburg based Vitalab, which boasts a track record of 34 years.

The clinic has opened the doors to its new high-tech facility in Torsvale Park, off uMhlanga Rocks Drive near Gateway.

Most patients leave pregnant, says Dr Lawrence Gobetz, a veteran fertility specialist and a leading member of Vitalab’s highly trained team. In the course of his 40-year medical career, Gobetz has helped thousands of patients to start families, guiding them through the frustration of trying to fall pregnant.

His seasoned approach is friendly but direct. He says many fertility patients are strung along through expensive processes with false promises of pregnancy. “Patients will dabble with single practitioners who have no real idea of fertility and miss a lot of the pathology.

You have to have a correct and ethical approach. Most patients leave pregnant, but it is down to honesty, and applying a correct individualised approach

and not a cookie cutter onesize-fits-all.

“Sometimes a patient has to consider donor eggs or adoption and even acceptance of the fact that the couple will be childless.

When you have a problem of this nature, don’t take it to a gynaecologist, take it to a reproductive medicine

specialist.”

Dr Gobetz is a Fellow of the College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists and is recognised by the South African Health Professions Council as a reproductive medicine specialist. In the 30 years he has specialised in infertility, he has seen an exponential rise in

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pregnancies through advances in technology.

Gobetz said rapid changes in the field had profound effects. The technology allows doctors, for example, to extract a single sperm with a glass needle 14 times thinner than a strand of human hair.

“All round it is a message of hope. But, fertility issues are not a one-size-fitsall solution. And many approaches actually compromise patients.

Infertility is like a jigsaw puzzle, you need to see every part of the puzzle.

It requires a structured and co-ordinated series of investigations to understand the cause. And once that is established, you need to work closely to develop individualised treatment.”

The approach to quality care can only be achieved by a structured team, each with their own area of speciality, that combined ensures patients achieve the best outcome.

Vitalab doctors have collective experience of 150 years. They, and a host of support staff – including counsellors and highly specialised laboratory technicians – accompany patients on a journey that takes care of their medical and emotional needs.

Vitalab has made a significant financial investment in buying and fitting out the Torsvale Park clinic. The building has been designed to create custom spaces for specialist doctors, patient consulting rooms and a host of sophisticated equipment.

Torsvale Office Park, uMhlanga Ridge, KwaZulu-Natal // kznreception@vitalabkzn.com // 031 880 1700

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Issue 09

WINTER 2020

G U E ST CO LU M N

Working TOGETHER

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Viv McMenamin, CEO of Mondi South Africa, takes a look at leadership in unprecedented times

he Covid pandemic has presented extraordinary challenges across the globe. For businesses in South Africa, it became clear quite early on, that this was going to be a period that would be testing for all and that we would need to work together through unchartered territory.

In times like these, leadership, values and collaboration matter. I have been able to draw upon my own leadership learning and experience and have reflected deeply on the values that anchor me.

I am especially grateful to have had the opportunity to work closely with Nelson Mandela early on in my leadership journey. There are two clear things I learnt under his iconic leadership on how to handle a crisis. The first is, when things get tough, your messages need to be clear and simple. The second is, no matter how tough it is for us, we need to reach out and support others. His call of, “It is in your hands to make our world a better one for all� has been an inspiration to me and has influenced my leadership thinking.

At Mondi, we recognise the need for strong, focused, inclusive and caring

leadership, and we have used this as a basis for our extensive Covid response across Mondi South Africa.

Our top priority is to safeguard our employees and the communities in which we operate. We continue to implement best practice Covid-19 health and safety protocols throughout our operations and have a responsibility to provide an ongoing supply of materials to our customers, many of

Issue 09

G U E ST CO LU M N

whom produce food and hygiene products.

We are also collaborating to support small businesses, as the tough economic recession has had a significant impact on these businesses.

Mondi Zimele, the small business development arm of Mondi South Africa, has offered various forms of assistance to our small business suppliers since March, including financial support at discounted

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interest rates, to help ensure the sustainability partners critical to our value chain. This business support has helped some of our Mondi contractors, suppliers and small businesses to continue operating during and after the phased re-opening of the lockdown. Feedback so far has been very positive.

In addition, we facilitated the provision of simplified information on how to access

We recognise the need for strong, focused, inclusive and caring leadership the government’s relief process and assisted with the completion of submissions.

When we identified a need for 10 000 face masks in our forestry business, we asked Mondi Zimele to find a solution involving small businesses. They selected a small rural business employing four women. To fulfil the order, 40 additional people were contracted to produce the masks, many of whom were either pensioners or unemployed people.

This cash injection provided income to the families and will help pay for equipment, material and possible expansion of the enterprise. Mondi Zimele is also assisting with training, registration of businesses and compliance support.

It is uncertain how the pandemic will develop or the full impact on the economy. However, what we are certain of is that in times like this, standing together, supporting small businesses, is essential for the economy and for society as a whole.

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ONE CORPORATE’S RESPONSE TO COVID Donated 100 000 N95 medical-grade masks to protect frontline healthcare workers in KwaZulu-Natal.

Provides assistance to small businesses through Mondi Zimele.

Funded food parcels for 2 000 families as part of the Masidle (let’s eat) programme.

Installed 40 additional JoJo tanks in rural communities in the region and supplied over half a million litres of water to these communities during the lockdown.

Provided 14 mobile health clinics and 48 other health facilities with medical supplies and equipment.

Rural high school, maths and science students were able to download and take their study material home free through the Ligbron partnership-enabled online eLearning platform.

ABOVE: ACCORDING TO VIV MCMENAMIN, CEO OF MONDI SOUTH AFRICA, IT IS IN TIMES LIKE THESE THAT LEADERSHIP, VALUES AND COLLABORATION MATTER.

ABOUT MONDI

Mondi South Africa is a pulp and paper company with 250 000 hectares of forestry operations and mills in Richards Bay and Durban, producing a range of products from tissue paper to pharmaceuticals and photocopy paper.

The company employs 1 500 people and has more than 4 000 contractors.

Mondi Zimele, established in 2007, is a small business development organisation accelerating black economic empowerment in the forestry value chain. In 2012, the focus expanded to incorporate support for community-based small businesses around Mondi’s operations. Since 2012, Mondi Zimele has provided in the region of R100-million in loan funding to assist over 200 businesses in the creation of more than 2 800 jobs.

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Issue 09

WINTER 2020

I N N O V AT I O N

Getting the jargon JITTERS Long ago, before Covid-19 stole the show, we had the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

It’s one of those buzz-phrases beloved of government officials and other chancers who like to brush a thin, with-it varnish over the rickety constructions they pass off as speeches and policy statements, writes Matthew Hattingh

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t’s a bit like quantum mechanics and the shysters and flakes who borrow its colourful theoretical language and metaphors to give everything from spirituality to management “science” a certain sheen.

But there are only so many empty words you can take on any given day.

So it was refreshing to attend a Durban conference – barely weeks before the pandemic –

The audience heard how robots were being linked to computers in the cloud as well as to motorist’s smartphones and other on-theground sensors ABOVE: GIDEON TREURNICH OF ROYAL HASKONINGDHV: A SMART TRAFFIC LIGHT SYSTEM WOULD CUT COMMUTING TIMES.

where “4IR” reared its ugly acronym of a head.

However, many of those using the term actually had some idea of what they were talking about.

They explained to guests at the Innovation Festival – in terms most of us could grasp – how our world, including work, was changing in ways big and small. Some of the speakers were experts in their field, or at the very least more than passingly acquainted with the changes afoot.

The audience heard, for example, how robots (the South African usage here, think lights at intersections) were being linked to computers in the cloud as well as to motorist’s smartphones and other onthe-ground sensors.

Gideon Treurnich, of Royal HaskoningDHV, told how the international engineering consulting firm was rolling out just such a smart traffic light system in Cape Town and how it would make

calculations in real-time, on the fly. It would cut commuting times and speed things along in that increasingly gridlocked city.

He expected the pilot project would be up and running by the end of the year and confirmed the firm was talking to officials to do the same in Durban.

In the past, said Treurnich, Royal HaskoningDHV sought traditional engineering solutions to congestion problems. But building

I N N O V AT I O N

Tshifularo puts much of his own success in developing the transplant down to persistence and trial and error, rather than time spent in halls of higher learning new roads or expanding existing ones took piles of cash that cities needed for other things. The solutions had to be found elsewhere.

The point was, technology intelligently applied could be used to make things simpler, better and faster, to borrow the old Standard Bank slogan.

Making things better was what medicine was all about, and another impressive speaker was Pretoria doctor, Mashudu Tshifularo. Tshifularo, an ear, nose and throat specialist, told how he teamed up with threedimensional printing people in Gauteng to fashion what last year became the world’s first inner-ear transplant, using 3D-printed replacement bones.

The operation proved a big success and has earned the doctor recognition far and wide.

Tshifularo happens to be a lay preacher and was also head of the

LEFT: DR MASHUDU TSHIFULARO: LED THE FIRST TEAM IN THE WORLD TO USE 3D-PRINTED BONES FOR RECONSTRUCTIVE MIDDLE EAR IMPLANTS.

We all have innovation in our power, we can all come up with something new, or better otorhinolaryngology department of the University of Pretoria and a chief specialist at the Sefako Makgatho Health Sciences University.

You would expect him then to be persuasive and engaging. And indeed he was. But what might have surprised you, was this professor of medicine’s

scathing comments on the stultifying effect the academic world has on innovation and how we must look to ourselves to bring our ideas to life.

Tshifularo puts much of his own success in developing the transplant down to persistence and trial and error, rather than time spent in halls of higher learning.

Responding to a question on the role of academia and formal research in innovation – effectively whether you needed to have a qualification to be an innovator – he said: “Academia puts people into little boxes. Innovations must be outside the box.

Academia does not teach you how to think. You spend 14 years in school, but nowhere are you taught how to look for a job.”

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Earlier he reminded the audience that, “We all have innovation in our power, we can all come up with something new, or better.”

It was a lesson the participants in the final event of the conference would hardly have needed.

Ten young men – few were much over 30 and there were no women (a source of comment from the judges) – competed in an innovation pitching competition, styled after TV’s Dragons’ Den. They took it in turns to take the stage, tell their stories, sell their products and subject themselves to comments from the judges both sage and scathing. The quality of some of the presentations and the innovations was impressive. Many involved applying existing technology in new ways or unveiled novel ideas not quite like anything already on the market. The sheer energy and chutzpah of it all were hugely encouraging.

Sure, many had got help along the way – that was kind of the point of the festival and indeed the raison d’etre for the organisers, not-for-profit company Innovate Durban.

Sure, some of the competitors appeared to be on a competition merry-go-round, attending events like the festival in the hope of winning prize money or unlocking funding in some form. But all in all, the competition and the festival as a whole reminded us that South Africans are an innovative and enterprising lot.

We’re out there making things happen and it matters little if the people pontificating about 4IR understand it or not.

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A D V E RTO R I A L

Mini Factories A Boon For SMMES Dube TradePort’s mini factories offer prime location, security, warehousing and office space – everything the SMME needs to be successful

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ube TradePort Special Economic Zone is poised to introduce to Durban’s property market a R90-million mini factory development for Small, Medium and Micro Enterprises (SMMEs)

“Whilst our precinct attracts big business investment, we identified an opportunity for SMMEs to also access our world-class infrastructure and support services” requiring manufacturing and office space.

The 18-unit complex has sparked keen investor interest due, largely, to its proximity to Dube Cargo Terminal at King Shaka International Airport and

the seaports of Durban and Richards Bay, as well as the Provincial N2 and N3 road network to the hinterland.

Commenting, Dube TradePort Special Economic Zone, Chief Executive Officer, Hamish Erskine, said: “Whilst our precinct attracts big business investment, we identified an opportunity for SMMEs to also access our world-class infrastructure and support services – a great prospect for this burgeoning sector.

“The precinct has developed rapidly, attracting private sector investment in excess of R3,2-billion and emerging as a global manufacturing and air logistics platform within southern Africa, which augurs well for SMMEs establishing here,”

A D V E RTO R I A L

Erskine explained.

He added: “Priority sectors catered for in Dube TradeZone 1 – adjacent the mini factories – include medical and pharmaceuticals, electronics, clothing and textiles, aerospace and aviation, automotive and logistics and distribution.

Dube TradeZone 2 will focus on a range of industry-types, including a pharmaceutical cluster, supply of common utilities, and services for key industries and those in the high-value manufacturing environment.”

Business diversity here will stand participating BELOW & ABOVE RIGHT: DUBE TRADEPORT’S MINI FACTORIES OFFER PRIME LOCATION, SECURITY, WAREHOUSING AND OFFICE SPACE.

SMMEs in good stead, enabling them to benefit from globally integrated logistics and manufacturing infrastructure.

Dube TradeZone 1 and Dube TradeZone 2 are positioned to afford enterprises the ability to develop global competitiveness and SMMEs here will have access to incentives, creating an appreciable competitive edge. Incentives include:  Reduced Corporate Income Tax – Section 12R: 15% corporate income tax for qualifying companies;  Building Allowance (12S): An accelerated depreciation allowance on capital structures (buildings, 10% per annum over 10 years). The special rate of capital (depreciation) allowances in lieu of normal allowances is available for the erection of or improvement to buildings and other fixed structures;  Employment Tax Incentives (ETI): Available to businesses with employees earning less than R60 000 per annum;  Customs Controlled Area: VAT and Customs relief. Import duty rebate and VAT exemption on imports, with the aim of exporting finished products;  12I Tax Allowance: For “Greenfield” and

“Brownfield” industrial projects to support capital investment and training; and  High-end Infrastructure: Funded through the Provincial Government and Special Economic Zone Fund.

The units are all 249,63m² in size and include manufacturing and assembly warehousing, reception areas, storerooms,

“The mini factory complex launch is set to attract new tenants active in targeted sectors, aligned to our strategic Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment goals, who are export or import replacementorientated” kitchens, toilets and mezzanine office and openplan areas. Five dedicated parking bays and one shared paraplegic bay are included in rental costs. Easy truck access is enhanced by dedicated loading/delivery bays and a shared bay.

Legislative requirements

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governing Special Economic Zones necessitate exceptional security standards, making Dube TradeZone 1 a highly secure business environment.

Measures include access cards, armed patrols, guardhouses, CCTV, licence plate recognition and a constant security presence.

Small-scale operators will therefore enjoy the advantage of operating 24 hours a day in a secure environment. “The mini factory complex launch is set to attract new tenants active in targeted sectors, aligned to our strategic BroadBased Black Economic Empowerment goals, who are export or import replacement-orientated, committed to localisation and introduction of new technology and dedicated to effective value chain development,” Erskine said.

The precinct, winner of the United Nations Award for Excellence in Promoting Sustainable Investment in Special Economic Zones, and the 2019 World Free & Special Economic Zones Federation award for Best Practice in Free & Special Economic Zones, offers a world-class business environment, strategically positioned at the intersection of local and global intermodal transport routes.

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Issue 09

WINTER 2020

H E A LT H C A R E

Big hitter backs KZN BRAND Post Covid-19, the sale of medicines and healthcare products will no longer hinge on just price. Instead, customers will value personalised services that independent pharmacies are best equipped to provide, writes Shirley Le Guern

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lready there are indications that pharmaceutical retailing has come full circle. Initially, the rise of big-box retailing and giant pharmacy chains with large but impersonal outlets put pressure on margins, prompting the demise of many small village pharmacies.

However, now that customers know how vulnerable they are, they will look for something more interactive, believes local entrepreneur and pharmacist, Lynda Bryant who began to roll-out her Thrive brand with the opening of a second store in Ballito just days before the national lockdown in March.

“Health and wellness – especially immune support and healthy living – will become even more of a priority post-Covid-19. People will focus on looking after their health. We are already ideally positioned to offer professional advice and have the right model for what consumers will be looking for – one place to meet all healthcare needs, sound advice, supporting local, personal relationships and convenient locations outside of mall environments,” she says.

Because it takes time to get a pharmacy licence, Thrive opened its new Ballito store as a stand-

ABOVE: LYNDA BRYANT’S VISION IS THAT MORE SOUTH AFRICAN COMMUNITIES WILL BENEFIT FROM THE THRIVE PHARMACY CONCEPT.

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H E A LT H C A R E

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Developing Thrive was always around the fact that I wanted it to be in more places than just Kloof. I felt it had legs and there were more South African communities that would benefit from this model alone health shop in March and planned to add a dispensary afterwards.

Undaunted by having to close the doors of her new outlet almost immediately, Bryant now believes lessons learnt will make the Thrive brand stronger.

“Like most small businesses, we will not come out unscathed. Our Kloof pharmacy continued trading at a huge cost. We had to quickly respond, adapting to various changes in regulations and encouraging social distancing to keep our staff and customers safe.

“We only reopened again in Ballito during Level 4. Without having a chance to officially launch the store and brand to our Ballito community, it has been challenging to remarket and ‘relaunch’ in the ‘new normal’ trading environment,” she explains.

However, both Bryant and her business partner, former group CEO of JSE-listed Famous Brands, Kevin Hedderwick, believe that the Thrive brand which is founded on three passions – retail pharmacy, business and people – will be even more relevant now.

Working in the pharmacy during lockdown, Bryant quickly discovered that people needed reassurance, personal advice, support and service. “We quickly adjusted our business model to provide deliveries, offer calland-collect options and other methods of getting access to medicines more easily. Now we will be expanding our vitamin ranges, eco-friendly cleaning solutions and health food offerings.”

Bryant started her career with a pharmacy degree from Rhodes University, an internship at a corporate pharmaceutical company and an 18-month stint in retail in Kloof.

She then joined Illovo Sugar, but the pull of retail remained so strong she regularly returned to the dispensary after hours to work as a locum.

At the age of just 26, a chance meeting and job offer from owner of the then National Road Pharmacy alongside the M13 in Kloof in 2004 proved an important turning point.

“I joked that I would only come across if I could buy the pharmacy. One evening, we sat on the floor downstairs and thrashed out the numbers. I bought 50% of the pharmacy in May 2005 and owned the entire business by December of that year.”

She soon introduced changes to the dispensary, stayed open until much later and added and trained staff. “With the right team and the loyalty of the community, we grew despite challenges such as single exit pricing and the rise of the corporates.”

Bryant’s pharmacy won a national best community pharmacy award in 2013.

“Even then, I couldn’t help thinking that something still needed to be different. Many people were coming into the pharmacy and complaining about their lifestyles and suggesting that they may be taking too much medication.

“We found ourselves advising on different vitamins and supplements. I’d always had a vision of creating a space that brought health and wellness and pharmacy together. There is a place for everything – for homeopathy, supplementation and alternative medicine as well as traditional allopathic solutions.”

Bryant investigated different offerings and decided to rebrand her business. She settled on the name Thrive.

“It meant to prosper, to flourish and to bloom and embodied everything about us. Our tagline – better than well – is exactly what we stand for.”

Double-digit growth followed and feedback from customers who found the array of choices in the supplements section at mega pharmacies daunting, and valued the accessibility and parking outside the Kloof store, suggested she was on the right track.

Thrive also began prioritising supporting local suppliers while sourcing as much as possible both organically and naturally.

Adding a second outlet was the obvious next step.

“Developing Thrive was always around the fact that I wanted it to be in more places than just Kloof. I felt it had legs and there were more South African communities that would benefit from this model.”

Hedderwick stepped in as an equity partner to help take the business to the next level. His input is based on an impressive track record that saw him grow a small family business trading as Steers Holdings in 2000 with a market capitalisation of R65-million into a R16-billion JSE-listed company by 2016.

“As part of my venture capital ambitions, I decided to invest in this company. We plan to grow the brand, starting with KwaZulu-Natal,” he says.

We are already ideally positioned to offer professional advice and have the right model for what consumers will be looking for – one place to meet all healthcare needs

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WINTER 2020

ENVIRONMENT

Don Bailey is a pilot and a businessman on a conservation mission to rescue penguins, wild dogs and more, writes Shirley le Guern

saved a seal recently,” says Don Bailey, CEO of Expand A Sign who is also a passionate pilot, ardent conservationist and a board member of the legendary “environmental air force” known as The Bateleurs.

Two penguins had washed up way off course on local beaches. Bailey was at the controls when they were airlifted back to Port Elizabeth. His passenger on the way back was a tiny dwarf seal that had lost a flipper to a shark and could not be rehabilitated and returned to the wild. Instead, Bailey flew her back to Durban and her new home at uShaka Marine World.

Bailey has many a tale to tell of the exploits of his fellow pilots, many of whom are, like him, trying to navigate the choppy waters of a post-Covid economy without necessarily being able to guess the next challenge coming their way.

especially as a pilot. When doing this, you meet people who are paid almost nothing but work for conservation out of love. That reminds you what a real job is,” he says, referring to three young Green Scorpions who he flew out to capture some poachers in a Zululand game reserve.

Bailey was called out of a sales meeting to help. “We rushed up and caught these guys. On the way back, they asked me to fly up a river to check on a large forestry company that was moving too close to the river.

These guys were worrying about every element of the environment.

They work long hours for very little pay. That’s inspiring and means far more than listening to a wealthy man talking about his latest investment on the stock market.”

Since school, Bailey had always wanted to be a pilot. His father had other ideas and sent him to university

Flying a flag for the ENVIRONMENT “We flew some wild dogs a while ago and the guys unfortunately crashed.

A call went out. Thirty minutes later, someone had put up his hand and a plane was in the air to pick up the dogs.”

He believes the flexibility that is key to The Bateleurs’ operations and enables them to turn a near tragedy into an opportunity could be a lesson for businesses going forward.

“It takes a while to mature. When you are young, you believe money is going to make you happy. But you have to ask yourself if that is true fulfilment,

Twenty-one years and thousands of missions later, our pilots have put nearly R50-million in time and resources into conservation to become an accountant.

“So I bit the bullet and when I had finished I told my Dad I was going to become a pilot. He said I could now earn my own money to become a pilot,

so I got a job, saved, did my training and got my private pilot’s licence.”

Getting a commercial licence proved much more expensive. To fund this, Bailey headed to London in 1995 where he worked for two years at a sports marketing company. On his return, he spent seven months at a flight school for his commercial rating and went on to fly for the United Nations in war-torn Angola.

During a short break at home in 1998, he heard that two of their planes had been shot down in just two days.

ENVIRONMENT

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LEFT: FOR BUSINESSMAN AND PILOT DON BAILEY, A GOOD DAY AT THE OFFICE IS ALL ABOUT GIVING BACK TO CONSERVATION.

“I knew those guys, and felt I couldn’t go back there. My father had started Expand A Sign and wanted to start exporting, and suggested that I use my contacts from my time in London to start a business in Europe.”

He set up an operation in London and appointed agents in Germany, Spain and Portugal, and by 2001 the business was booming and his father asked him to return to South Africa to help run it. He and wife Tanya wanted to bring up their children here so gladly complied.

“As soon as I got back I bought a plane. But I felt I needed to give back, do more. That’s when I heard about The Bateleurs.

Bailey admits that it is often difficult for those who own planes to justify the expense. The Bateleurs offer an opportunity for them to give back while still embracing their passion for flying.

“Twenty-one years and thousands of missions later, our pilots have put nearly R50-million in time and resources into conservation. In a year we probably do more flights and missions than the South African Air Force. But, while most of the

At Expand A Sign, Expand A Brand and Uzwelo Bags, we realised that South Africa was going to need huge volumes of face masks to help reduce the risk of transmission of the coronavirus. So, we turned our production over to that, which has also helped us keep our employees in jobs and the collective which works for Uzwelo Bags still stitching.”

To date, they have made around one million masks money given to charities goes to administration and very little reaches the actual charity, we have the reverse.

For every rand you give us, we put R4 into conservation. We are one of the very few organisations that has achieved that,” he says.

Bailey’s love for flying and conservation has become closely entwined with his business over the years.

Expand A Sign – which has evolved from a small producer of tents and beach shelters to a global leader in portable branding solutions such as teardrop, pop-up and folding banners, roll-ups, gazebos, tents and inflatables – now operates in Africa, Europe, America and the Middle East and can boast that its products have been spotted everywhere from the North Pole to the Dakar Rally, the Comrades Marathon and beyond.

“We’ve created banners for everyone from the Durban North Chihuahua Club to Rolls Royce,” he laughs.

But the division of which he is particularly proud is Uzwelo. Created three years ago, it employs women from local communities to sew everything from school bags to laptop bags, pencil cases and beach bags using waste fabric from Expand A Sign’s manufacturing process.

Proceeds from the sales pay the seamstresses and costs with the remainder going to The Bateleurs.

Over the past three years, Uzwelo has donated R220 000 to the organisation.

Now, as the cancellation of events and various levels of lockdown have impacted the business, Bailey and his team have approached the decline in demand for their primary product as an opportunity to rapidly re-engineer their enterprise to deliver something the market needs.

“In our case, at Expand A Sign, Expand A Brand and Uzwelo Bags, we realised that South Africa was going to need huge volumes of face masks to help reduce the risk of transmission of the coronavirus. So, we turned our production over to that, which has also helped us keep our employees in jobs and the collective which works for Uzwelo Bags still stitching.” To date, they have made around one million masks.

They have also launched The Buro, the company’s in-house design, marketing and strategy agency as an independent operation that is already working with small businesses and helping to develop their brands at a much lower cost than larger agencies.

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The spirit of SURVIVAL Restaurants are the face of the hospitality and tourism sector, a vital cog in KZN’s economy that has been hit by the pandemic, but must survive, writes Shirley le Guern and Shelley Seid

T

he sector has been whacked by liquidations, and job losses are the order of the day. Many hospitality businesses that were trying to eke out a living in the flailing prepandemic economy at the beginning of the year, were completely knocked by three months of lockdown.

But for every tale of misery in the sector, and there are countless others to counter that, there are stories of extraordinary resilience. People in the trade are immersed in a valiant fight to stay afloat, deftly re-purposing and clawing ahead to keep their businesses ticking over.

There are many stories of this courage in the feature that unfolds, but perhaps the attitude is best reflected by Marcelle Roberts, the famous Durban chef who owns Cafe 1999 and Unity with her husband Sean.

“I haven’t stopped since the start of lockdown. We are fighting to stay alive. I have been in the kitchen since day one and my waiters are doing deliveries. We have embraced the changes or we won’t survive.”

Roberts says the fact that their businesses have kept moving has kept their spirits up and those of staff, loyal customers and suppliers.

Unity is open and is also pushing deliveries through a variety of platforms. And Roberts has also thrown herself into a pre-prepared meal business with Dominic Barberi whose Seafood Enterprise did a quick pivot from supplying restaurants.

“We’ve just kept pushing through … kept moving … and are getting busier every day,” Roberts told KZN INVEST. The Restaurants Association of South Africa (RASA) predicts many of the 800 000 people working in the hospitality sector (a considerable chunk in KZN) will be jobless before

the year is out.

RASA member Natasha Sideris, the owner of Tasha’s chain of restaurants, was quoted in Daily Maverick saying half of South Africa’s 13 000 restaurants countrywide could close, with a huge effect on an entire supply chain from small farmers to catering supply companies.

Landlords with outstanding rentals and lost tenants will suffer, too.

Some establishments – when safety protocols are as long as menus – are confident their strong branding will tide them over and have elected to remain closed. Their logic: spiralling operating costs, narrow margins, high levels of debt and low volumes, means

H O S P I TA L I T Y

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FAR LEFT: MARCELLE ROBERTS, THE FAMOUS DURBAN CHEF WHO OWNS CAFE 1999 AND UNITY WITH HER HUSBAND SEAN. LEFT: SADHA NAIDOO, OWNER OF CALIFORNIA DREAMING ON THE BEACHFRONT.

little point in trading for the sake of it.

The huge cost of constant sanitising just to open is too much. Reducing table numbers by up to 30% to meet social distancing requirements, while waiting to see if customers feel safe enough to return to a restaurant, means volumes aren’t sufficient to sustain some businesses.

Kitchens need to be stocked to serve all items and, even with muchreduced menus, expired food adds to losses. And for many upmarket establishments, another roadblock is the ban on serving alcohol with meals.

“I don’t know about you, but if I spend R350 on a meal, I expect at least one glass of wine with that,” said Howard Preece, head of Fedhasa’s East Coast division.

He said an expensive meal and a good glass of wine were a bouquet that came together and many restaurant owners feel it is not worth the expense of opening or bringing back staff.

Preece said for the next few months

FACT BOX

▪ According to Stats SA, in 2016 the

South African restaurant, fast-food and catering sector generated annual revenue of R57-billion.

▪ The restaurant/coffee shop segment generated just over 51% of the sector’s total income.

▪ The food and beverage industry’s income decreased by 29% in March 2020, the start of lockdown. at the very least, the outlook for the restaurant industry was discouraging.

Confusion surrounding whether or not leisure travel is permitted and strict curbs on international travel are likely to remain for some time, so Preece said those catering primarily for tourists and those in remote destinations will be hardest hit.

“From next month I see thousands of people being laid off until we reach the

next level,” he said.

At the same time, Preece said he understood that government was caught between a rock and a hard place. Pubs, restaurants and shebeens pose a high health risk if not meticulously managed.

Preece added that those most likely to survive the continued punitive pandemic regulations were fast-food outlets and those providing a take-out service and coffee shops.

“Then again, it depends on the size of your war chest, so I just don’t know.

Restaurants have a very poor outlook at present. Some will survive and some won’t.”

What does provide some hope is that both independently owned and franchised restaurant businesses rely on entrepreneurial owners who constantly face challenges.

Roberts said customers were simply changing their habits. “We are delivering meals to customers at home where they have set the table beautifully – and want me to bring fabulous food.”

In a recent presentation, global entrepreneur Richard Branson predicted restaurants had to adapt or close, in response to consumption and socialisation changes. He was quoted saying there had been a 300% increase in USA take-aways as a result of Covid.

Sadha Naidoo, a veteran of the KZN tourism industry and owner of California Dreaming on the beachfront, said most restaurants relied on the sale of both alcohol and food, so banning the sale of liquor at eateries impacted heavily. He said a host of factors influenced business viability, including customer confidence, and recovery was not simply a case of re-opening restaurants as restrictions are eased.

Grace Harding, CEO of Ocean Basket and head of RASA is optimistic that, in the longer term, many South African restaurants will follow their counterparts in countries like Mauritius and Australia where restrictions are easing up.

It won’t be long before South Africans, she said, will get used to the discomfort of going out wearing masks and queuing, and will hang up their braai tongs and salad servers in favour of a special night out.

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Hard-wired to SURVIVE The hospitality industry may be reeling from the pandemic, but local travel could be the light at the end of the tunnel

S

amantha Croft, the KZN director of operations for Tsogo Sun – probably the biggest single operator in the hospitality business in the province – says the pandemic has smacked the industry.

According to the Tourism Business Council of South Africa (TBCSA), since the start of the national lockdown at the end of March, over R68-billion in tourism spend has been lost.

There is not one hotel operator unaffected, said Croft. Weeks ago US Marriott group announced they would stop operating three local hotels, including Durban’s iconic Edward Hotel. (Tsogo owns the properties and will take over the running of those hotels.)

“We are looking at huge job losses across the sector,” she said. “The closures of all hotels since the start of lockdown have had a dire impact on related services, for example, the laundry industry, cleaning services and security services. The meat bill for the Elangeni Maharani is around R800 000 during normal trading. Since lockdown, it’s been zero.”

Tsogo Sun has implemented a salary

ABOVE: THE NEW NORMAL WILL BE A LEANER, MORE BROADLY TRAINED WORKFORCE, WITH A FLATTENED HIERARCHY, SAYS SAMANTHA CROFT, KZN DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONS FOR TSOGO SUN.

cut across the board. But from a team perspective, Croft is encouraged by how employees have pulled together. “During full lockdown, many staff members offered to come in and work for no pay to help keep the company going.”

Hotels opening for business travel at the beginning of June brought some light to a very dark tunnel, but it’s a very different state of affairs.

“Hospitality is now not so hospitable,” says Croft, “and it is very hard for us. We are hard-wired to provide

hands-on service. Now, we cannot hand someone a cup of coffee – they must take it off the tray themselves; guests must carry their luggage themselves or agree to it being sprayed down first. Thanks to masks they cannot see us smile. We cannot shake hands. We don’t even have evening turndown as we must minimise contact.”

There is every attempt to make the guest experience less clinical – at the Beverly Hills, for example, aromatic candles have been placed in the lobby “but the guest still

cannot see if we are smiling or scowling!”

The workforce will need to multi-task going forward.

“The person who greets you will be the person who takes your drinks order and serves your food.

The new normal will be a leaner, more broadly trained workforce, with a flattened hierarchy. In essence, we have to work as economically as possible without impacting on the customer experience.”

From a more positive perspective, Croft is looking forward to looking after local travellers. According to Stats SA, in 2018 South African residents spent R84-billion travelling abroad, and as Croft points out, these same people will not be travelling overseas in the short term.

“So we need to encourage them to explore their own country. We need to become more creative and diversify in order to appeal to a range of local markets.

We want to offer deals that include the berg and the bush for example, and not just the beaches.”

Durban, she says, is optimistic about picking up on leisure travel in December.

“We will be offering packages that will be more attractive than last year’s.

We are encouraging all South Africans to take a much-needed break – we know that people want to get away.

“We are not expecting a boom, but we definitely want to see December in Durban getting back to normal.”

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ith a hands-on attitude and contagious “don’t ever give up” approach, the owner of the Jackie Cameron School of Food and Wine is deeply saddened by the closure of so many restaurants.

But, Cameron remains confident that the “crazy but extremely rewarding” restaurant industry will survive.

“There is no point in being negative.

Chefs like a good challenge. We’re not used to saying we can’t do it. Just being in a kitchen is hectic so we will definitely get through this. We can expect an

Cameron believes that lockdown might well have been a much needed reset for both restaurant owners and customers unusual new normal – but it will be a different and a better one,” she says.

Born and raised in the KZN Midlands, Cameron’s career has seen her cooking in kitchens across the world, and is probably best remembered for putting the restaurant at boutique hotel Hartford House in Mooi River on the culinary map.

After a 12-year stint, Cameron opened a school of food and wine in April 2015 and has been vocal in asking

Time to savour the TASTE Chef Jackie Cameron expects an unusual new normal is around the corner for restaurants – different, but better

ABOVE: JACKIE CAMERON HAS SPENT MUCH OF LOCKDOWN DISTRIBUTING FOOD PARCELS TO LOCAL COMMUNITIES.

the hospitality industry to support local farmers and food producers.

Cameron has spent much of lockdown distributing food parcels to local communities and says despite potential job losses in her industry, there is still a dire need for skills development and training.

She has chosen not to re-open her on-site restaurant immediately. As soon as she is certain it is safe and sensible to do so, she is confident they will be laying tables again.

Cameron believes that lockdown might well have been a much needed reset for

both restaurant owners and customers.

“I hope people will now realise that restaurants are not charging enough.

They complain about how food prices have risen at supermarkets but they don’t realise that restaurant food prices have not kept pace. Restaurants have been cutting their costs just to get people through the door. Now that people have been cooking at home, they know what goes into a dish and have experienced the real prices of things. Maybe they will not go out as often, but they will be prepared to spend more.”

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H O S P I TA L I T Y

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Judd Campbell is hospitality visionary and gifted entrepreneur who has nimbly served his hood in spite of the lockdown

W

e are doing surprisingly well,” Campbell says, a man who has a knack for reading the quirks of a neighbourhood and creating the perfect community spots for coffee and restaurants. He has a light touch, a great sense of humour and finesse. These traits undoubtedly helped him respond well to the lockdown challenges.

Campbell created Corner Café; Love Coffee in Windermere Road; the petite Coffee Tree on the intersection of Cato and Alan Paton Roads; the imaginative Prep Room in Bulwer Park (using containers as a core medium); and most recently Pizza My Heart at 106 Bulwer.

All have involved learning lessons. Before lockdown, Campbell says he was run ragged operating four shops expending enormous energy and not making much money. Lockdown meant he

What’s cooking in the ’HOOD?

scaled back and now runs just two venues: Coffee Tree for morning coffee – open from 6am until 10am and harnessing the early morning trade.

“People come past, sit on the grass verge, watch the sunrise, it’s beautiful.”

Pizza My Heart – the thriving joint that was in its infancy before lockdown, has evolved to a bespoke delivery and collection operation, running seven days a week, noon until 9pm.

“We have a dedicated small staff, we don’t hold much stock, our electricity bill has gone down by two thirds. We are making more pizzas now than before, we are turning a profit, and have no guests.

So we won’t automatically be going back to how it was before. We are not in a rush to run a full seated restaurant again.

“I look and feel a bit like Homer Simpson – pizza delivery has become my social life!”

Campbell says without diners, spaces can be reconfigured, sharing rent and pooling resources.

He has set himself a mission to provide great food at affordable prices.

“I want it to be cheaper to buy from me than make at home. We are learning to be frugal and mindful; to grow our own food and maybe have a chicken in the yard. In the end, the planet will win. And that has to be good!”

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WINTER 2020

nly restaurateurs who were running their businesses well and not racking up massive debts prior to Covid-19 will survive. That is just one of the many harsh lessons that restaurant owners can take out of the pandemic, says Max Mqadi, the owner of one of Durban’s most popular restaurants, Max’s Lifestyle.

A vocal opponent of how the government has attempted to curtail the spread of Covid-19 through imposing crippling restrictions on the restaurant sector, Mqadi says he did not believe government decisionmakers truly understand what it means to create a business from nothing and then see it undermined by “poor policies”.

Max’s Lifestyle started out as just a butchery and shisa nyama in a one-room shack in front of a former taxi rank in 2002 and grew into a swish, A-list eatery offering an authentic

H O S P I TA L I T Y

A life and death FIGHT Max Mqadi is opposed to government’s stiff lockdown measures, and believes poverty is the only winner township experience.

In 2016, Max’s Lifestyle was recognised as one of the top 207 restaurants in the world by Condé Nast magazine. It attracted customers from across the country and abroad and

has become a major tourist attraction.

Now the restaurant is idling, waiting for a return to normality. The staff of 150, which fed as many families and made an impact on the Umlazi township economy,

has been reduced to just 25. Numbers are down and turnover has dwindled.

“When it comes to a restaurant, it is not about selling the food but about selling the experience.

Selling alcohol is where restaurant owners make the money to pay the electricity bills and their taxes to government. People come here to eat and then to spend hours drinking and socialising with their friends.”

He does not believe first world rules apply in a third world environment.

As with other pandemics, such as HIV, Mqadi believes government’s role is to educate people to care for themselves rather than impose stiff regulations.

That includes freeing up restaurants to run their establishments professionally and to oversee responsible drinking rather than banning the sale of alcohol and leaving people to go to parties at homes which are not properly policed.

“At the moment I am open because I own this complex. If I was renting I wouldn’t be,” he says of the centre which also includes a butchery, car wash and beauty salon.

“People support us because they miss their places, but they don’t stay for long because government has taken out the social element. There is nothing we can do but wait and see.

I believe the government is letting us down. The problem is coronavirus versus poverty, and poverty is winning,” he says.

Mqadi believes there will not be any major changes for the restaurant sector before December, and those that manage to survive that long need to have recovery plans in place. “It’s a life and death fight.”

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A D V E RTO R I A L

Q

What is Absa’s view of the economic outlook for our markets given the current pandemic?

The impact of Covid-19 will be deep and protracted, and we are only likely to see 2019 economic activity and growth levels by 2023.

According to our own internal economic outlook, the economy is likely to contract by -7,5% this year, with some correction in 2021 of about 2-3% GDP growth.

Which industry sectors and market segments have been most severely impacted?

Whereas the 2008 economic crisis affected large businesses first, with a

Q

essential consideration as the pandemic has resulted in shocks to supply chains and businesses cash flows.

We are acutely aware of our clients’ liquidity needs, and acting quickly to manage this is key. Businesses need to conserve cash, manage expenses responsibly and suspend non-essential functions to free up some liquidity. We encourage clients to speak to their bankers to discuss their liquidity challenges as there are multiple options and products that could be used to help manage liquidity.

How is Absa supporting businesses through this crisis?

Q

ABOVE: MR. RONNIE MBATSANE MANAGING EXECUTIVE KWAZULUNATAL & MPUMALANGA

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and employment levels. At a time like this financial prudence is advisable by reducing costs, extracting efficiencies and identifying where business models can be adjusted to meet the “new normal”. For example, where restaurants have been closed, home delivery services have grown exponentially; where manufacturers have relied on imported materials, they are sourcing locally; online retailing has blossomed with an increase in “lastmile” delivery services. And where we see growth – for example in agriculture – invest wisely to take advantage of this growth

BusinessAgility in tough TIMES

secondary impact on smaller players, we are seeing the reverse of this during the current pandemic. The most severe stress is evident amongst small and medium businesses, as they have been severely impacted by the total lockdown and lack of ability to trade. The sectors most negatively impacted in our base are obviously tourism and hospitality, trade, manufacturing, real estate and construction. But keep in mind that some of these sectors were already showing signs of stress prior to the pandemic, such as real estate and manufacturing.

Trade is resilient and likely to bounce back, but unfortunately, the impact on tourism and hospitality is likely to linger into next year.

What are the biggest challenges facing businesses at the moment?

Managing cash flow is an

Q

Ronnie Mbatsane, Managing Executive of Absa KwaZulu-Natal and Mpumalanga, offers an overview of the economic challenges facing businesses, and how Absa is helping them Absa announced extensive payment relief programmes for individuals and businesses impacted by Covid-19 to help them deal with cash flow constraints.

Our business payment relief programmes have covered loans, commercial asset finance loans, and mortgagebacked business loans. We have provided payment relief for clients across all sectors on a loan book of over R24billion, where clients could defer loan repayments for a period of three months while their businesses were impacted by Covid-19. We are now entering a second cycle of payment relief with

clients on a case by case basis. We remain committed to supporting our clients through this crisis, and are also supporting clients through the governmentbacked loan guarantee scheme to assist businesses with operational costs and cash flows.

What should businesses be doing now to survive this crisis?

There are a lot of unknowns for all of us – how long the crisis will continue, the likelihood of new outbreaks, the impact of potential further lockdowns, the impact on workforce health and safety,

Q

cycle to increase production capacity and efficiencies.

What message of hope can you give businesses in these gloomy times?

Take heart and continue to run your business as best you can. Things are bleak right now across the globe, but they will get better.

Support your employees if you can, and stay close to your customers. You may need to change how you work and use innovative ways to deliver your business or access your clients. Speak to your banker for support as we are in this together. Stay safe and we will get through this.

Q

For more information 0800 227 592 or www.absa.co.za

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his is an extremely difficult time as I am alone in the kitchen without a team and really battling to find a balance.

What normally takes an hour is taking me several as I have to do the cooking, prepping and admin.”

For now, her customised 1978 Bedford bus, a street food icon, is parked, and Adams is struggling to keep her broader upmarket catering and food consulting company – which provides everything from burgers to fine dining and consults to restaurants – alive.

It is the toughest environment the sector has ever encountered. “I have always considered myself flexible and adaptable ... but the future of my industry is uncertain.

This is scary. Things are unpredictable. My passionate side believes I will continue to roll with the punches, persevere and create innovative solutions.

I will try and find the gaps in the market to utilise my skill set,” she says.

Her business was gearing up for major sporting and lifestyle events and looking forward to the likes of the Durban Vodacom July. Stock

had been purchased, decor and crockery ordered.

Suppliers, who feared contamination, could not take stock back.

“We were forced to sell the stock at cost or give it away to charity. It created a huge strain.”

Adams has made costly adjustments to operate within the law. She created

Keep the bus MOVING Nadia Adams’ signature, big orange bus is standing still, but the plucky entrepreneur and owner of Fudart certainly isn’t

“My passionate side believes I will continue to roll with the punches, persevere and create innovative solutions.” – Nadia Adams, owner of Fudart a new product offering, including smaller platters for lockdown celebrations, food delivery, and even food solutions for essential workers in the healthcare and construction sectors.

But take-away food solutions come at a cost, including additional labour, chemicals, travel and delivery. In some cases, the packaging cost more than the meal. “It’s difficult to explain that to customers.”

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An appetite for CHANGE

P

Jean-Pierre LeRoux, the owner of Salisbury Café in Westville, put a “we are open” sign outside his restaurant on the first anniversary of his year in business. For him, it was a fresh start

rior to lockdown, his coffee shop and bistro was always abuzz with locals and business people meeting over a cappuccino. Then Covid-19 forced him to embrace a new take-out customer base and technology he might not have considered before.

Instead of ordering via waitrons with notebooks in hand, customers can now call up the menu, make their selection and pay by phone. The order goes straight to the kitchen. Using his coffeeto-go App, you can have your favourite cuppa delivered to your car when you arrive at the restaurant.

Like many a chef, he’s tired of putting meals in cardboard rather than

on a plate. But the flip side of lockdown is a new take-away customer who is important for a small restaurant that needs to grow turnover.

Instead of the franchises encroaching

His flexibility to create bespoke meals means take-outs will never be restricted to burgers and pizza again on the independents’ turf, people seem to be ordering more sophisticated meals to go and chefs are sending out more creative and personalised fare – like JP’s television meal to share in a box.

The vegan menu he launched just prior to lockdown and his flexibility to create bespoke meals means take-outs will never be restricted to burgers and pizza again.

LeRoux is seized with making the take-out experience exceptional until the day he aches for – a return to traditional dining, themed evenings, and sneaking out of the kitchen to interact with people. That’s what drew him to the industry in the first place and saw him work alongside big names like Ainsley Harriot and George Calombaris.

It is what spurred him to open Salisbury in the first place and Covid-19 is not going to change his passion, he says.

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CONNECT GLOBALLY

2 SECTORS: AGRICULTURE/ BUSINESS SERVICES/ MANUFACTURING/ ENERGY AND WATER/ MINING AND BENEFICIATION/ TOURISM AND PROPERTY DEVELOPMENT

Trade & Investment KwaZuluNatal is a South African trade and inward investment promotion agency (IPA), established to promote the province of KwaZulu-Natal as an investment destination and to facilitate trade by assisting local companies to access international markets.

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P O RTS

Ports in a STORM Logistics operators and shipping companies are navigating choppy waters during Covid-19, uncertain about how to handle KZN port challenges, writes Shirley Le Guern

S

ome stakeholders describe Durban port operational management as characterised by “smoke and mirrors”, especially since the start of the pandemic.

What is needed – most concede off the record – is for people to pull together to solve massive logjams that have not only strangled the port, but many manufacturers who are desperate to get back on stream. They call for an investment in common sense rather than rands and cents.

Even though Transnet Port Terminals (TPT) has claimed the mandatory truck appointment system at the Durban Container Terminal (DCT) as a success during lockdown, snarl-ups around the port suggest otherwise.

KZN Containers acting general manager Abubaker Badat said the booking system resulted in a faster clearing of trucks at the

Importers cannot pay because they cannot get their cargo released to sell.

It is becoming a very vicious cycle port, which previously contributed to Bayhead Road traffic, and said the DCT had recovered to the point where it was handling the same number of trucks as during normal operating levels.

Trucking companies disagree, claiming massive backlogs even during lower levels of lockdown as well as ongoing equipment breakdowns.

A further complication is clearing the build-up of “nonessential goods”.

“During the initial lockdown, there were extensive delays as some ports and most terminals were closed completely or operated at only 50% capacity,” said Malcolm Hartwell, director and master mariner at Norton Rose Fulbright.

“Whilst commodity trades continued slowly, only a few container ships were allowed to discharge essential cargo.

This eased quite quickly because the restrictions were unworkable, but there were still delays due to an inconsistent

approach by the various regulatory bodies. This resulted in, for example, ships discharging their cargoes of cars, but the road transporter not being allowed to take them out of the Durban terminal. These delays affected both importers and exporters and saw many bulk ships sitting idly at anchor,” Hartwell said.

The losses were massive. “Shipowners could not look to cargo owners to recover the losses caused by having to sit at anchor off Richards Bay for three weeks. For similar reasons, the vast majority of marine cargo insurance policies would not respond to claims for losses caused by delays as a result of the lockdown as these losses were excluded.”

Hartwell said many importers of containerised goods had been levied large demurrage charges and some operators had

P O RTS

refused to release goods until the demurrage charges were paid.

“In some cases, logistics companies have also provided asset finance on the goods imported and refuse to release the goods until there are payment plans in place. Importers cannot pay because they cannot get their cargo released to sell. It is becoming a very vicious cycle.”

Hartwell believes that all parties in the logistics chain need to assess the difficulties that importers face and reach workable solutions. “Ports and terminals need to encourage their clients to facilitate the clearing of the backlog as soon as possible as there is nothing else they can do to mitigate or recover any of the losses they have suffered over the last few months. This is why this pandemic has had such a

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devastating effect on the economy.”

Captain Rufus Lekala, acting chief operating officer at Transnet National Ports Authority, is more upbeat.

“As many businesses start coming back on stream, we anticipate increased levels of activity in and out of the ports, mostly from the depots that had stored cargo for businesses that were not trading. Marine services at both ports are at 100% capacity to support the terminals in recovery plans. We have been engaged with stakeholders – including the provincial government – regarding the province’s post-Covid-19 economic recovery and efforts to deal with congestion in our KZN ports.”

Lekala said two main key performance indicators are anchorage and ship turnaround times. “Due to the

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WINTER 2020

P O RTS

Covid-19 outbreak and subsequent government regulations introduced – including initial restrictions on handling of essential versus non-essential cargo – both KZN ports saw a significant increase in vessel waiting time at outer anchorage. This was largely due to berth operations being reduced due to social distancing requirements.”

For similar reasons, berth turnaround times also deteriorated. However, since May (level 4 lockdown), berth operations and gang deployment had ramped up and vessel berthing delays reduced even though they were not yet at ideal levels, he said.

He said both ports experienced a decrease in ship calls and throughput volumes.

The automotive terminal was one of the worst affected while containers of non-essential cargo clogged up the system.

The Port of Richards Bay was mostly affected in the dry bulk and break bulk sectors.

“We are beginning to see a recovery but the 2020/21 financial year which began in lockdown presents its own challenges – especially on human resources when people in the port system test positive for Covid-19,” he adds.

Dr Jedd Myers, COO of corporate health and wellness services organisation, HealthInsite, who is working with shipping companies, said the pandemic points to many failures to invest in workforce wellness that will have huge ramifications.

“The human impact is real and can be dramatic and tragic.

Individuals who test positive, and any first degree contacts, need to be isolated for 14 days and be asymptomatic prior to returning to work. Businesses with high employee density operations such as shipping are at higher risk of disruption.

This will be exacerbated if operations require lengthy stays away from home. A ship, for example, is at very high risk for any infection spread due to the proximity of the people on board and the shared facilities and utilities.” It is particularly difficult to manage an outbreak on board a ship that is either docked or out at sea.

Looking beyond the lockdown logjam, Lekala said business recovery was also hinged on infrastructure development. Transnet is still looking at spending around R16-billion between 2019/20 and 2023/24 in the ports of Durban and Richards Bay. “The transport and logistics sectors surrounding these two major ports are economically strategic not only to KwaZuluNatal, but also to the national economy of South Africa and southern Africa.”

Lekala said priority projects in Durban’s port include repairs and upgrades at the Prince Edward Graving Dock and construction of the new Durban cruise terminal. Engineering studies and the acquisition process for the Durban Berth Deepening project and Durban Pier 1 Phase 2 Infill projects will continue. In Richards Bay, dredging and construction of marine infrastructure for a new floating dock will resume.

“Marine services at both ports are at 100% capacity to support the terminals in recovery plans”

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WINTER 2020

SHIPPING

Riding the STORM

ockdown’s vice-like grip on the economy and its lingering after-effects are costing Mediterranean Shipping Company South Africa hundreds of millions of rands in lost revenue. But the local arm of the container shipping giant will weather the financial storm, with its minerals exports business already coming back strongly.

That’s the word from Glenn Delve, commercial director for MSC SA, which

Shipping giant MSC is confident of weathering the global economic storm, reports Matthew Hattingh ships 38% of the containers that come through the country’s ports, with nearly two-thirds of these via Durban.

Delve’s main responsibility is to fill MSC ships. Considering that MSC has

nearly 480 vessels and is the world’s second-largest container line by capacity, and given that South Africa remains an important part of its operations, it is clear this man has his hands full.

Delve confirmed that volumes in April were down 32% on the same period last year, and the figures for May were down by a similar number. With lockdown level 5 and late 4 in force over that period, imports and exports were restricted to essential goods.

But that did not mean cargo already

SHIPPING

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33

have eased. “June may be a bit better,” he said before figures for the month were available, “and minerals have come back quite strongly. Chrome, ferrochrome, manganese, all those kinds of things.”

MSC’s passenger liner operation tended to be in the public eye a good deal more than its container operation, but with 24 vessels as opposed to 450 vessels, accounted for a relatively modest fraction of the company’s business. Right now, that’s probably just as well.

“Cruises are a disaster, and have hit us massively. Orchestra has been sitting since the beginning of March,” he said of the 92 000-gross ton liner that for much of the past three or four months has been berthed at Durban’s N-Shed.

Cruise liners stuck in port are “like having a huge resort with no people”.

Meanwhile, work on Durban’s long-

The fruit export business has been particularly hard hit, with some exporters forced to truck and then ship via Ngqura and Durban

on the high seas stayed there. It was unloaded and stored in the company’s depots, three of them in Durban, but at “huge cost to ourselves and industry”, with MSC discounting its usual charges by 50%.

“We were running at 30% (of volume during that period). I’ve had to bypass vessels, others were delayed outside Durban,” he said. By late June, MSC had finally cleared much of its “huge backlog” in Durban, although in Cape Town, Covid-19 continued to play havoc with operations. Many ships were bypassing the port, which was bogged down by delays. The fruit export business has been particularly hard hit, with some exporters forced to truck and then ship via Ngqura (north of Port Elizabeth) and Durban.

Lockdown has also been hard on MSC’s automotive business.

Delve mentioned that BMW, for whom the shipping line handled

“substantial” import and exports, had shut its entire Rosslyn, Pretoria plant from mid-March to mid-May. In addition, MSC’s Volkswagen business was also affected.

Lockdown has cost the group billions globally and its South African operations, “hundreds of millions”.

He said he has yet to do a detailed breakdown, but “it’s a huge amount of money”; and it was also too early to estimate the likely impact on future volumes in the short to medium term.

Delve felt export volumes would return to normal, or close to normal, but there would be a drop in imports reflecting the National Treasury’s projections of a 7,2% decline in the domestic economy for the 2020 financial year and International Monetary Fund figure of a 4,9% retraction for the global economy.

There has been an uptick in business as lockdown restrictions

awaited ocean terminal, which MSC had hoped to see finished by mid-2021, has stalled. When might the project resume?

“We’ll see when the cruise business goes on line again,” said Delve.

Somewhat gloomy news perhaps, but on a more positive note, MSC is wellpositioned to go the distance.

“We will survive, no problem about that. The strings we have; we operate globally. One area is down, another up.

It’s not like we are in one field of play, it’s a global spread.”

Do MSC staff need fear for their jobs as was the reality for many corporate employees now? No. The company had no plans to cut back on its operations or trim any of its 1 500 local staff, part of a global workforce of 70 000, said the 35-year MSC veteran. Apart from needing people to keep its operations going, Delve said retrenching wasn’t part of their philosophy. “We are a family-orientated business. We are still privately owned. We have a different view on people. Its a family company.

We believe in people. We are more compassionate to people.”

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WINTER 2020

P R O P E RT Y

The commercial and retail property sector is reeling from Covid-19. It demands a quick pivot. KZN INVEST spoke to Urban Lime CEO Jonny Friedman, who says it is critical to do things differently to sustain and support tenants and stakeholders

W

e need to be part of the solution. Now more than ever, we are focusing on neighbourhood initiatives that respond to how people can interact and live in a post-Covid world.”

Friedman’s tenants range from microbusinesses to large corporates and big franchises and says Urban Lime strives for creative solutions that are sustainable and rejuvenate the city.

“Lockdown has made us do things differently. As well as becoming more tech efficient, improving our tenant communications and being more mindful, some projects which were on the table have been accelerated and rolled out.”

One of their pre-Covid projects was to establish a shelter as a temporary accommodation for vulnerable women and children, working together with the eThekwini Deputy Mayor’s office and FNB. Strollers, a three-storey building, was identified and the project was fast-tracked early in lockdown so it could be operational for residents much sooner than originally envisaged. The partners donated R500 000 each for phase one and encouraged their contacts to help out.

“Strollers has helped changed the narrative around problematic buildings and has provided a place of refuge for more than 200

PROPERTY needs to pivot quickly

women and women with children,” says Friedman.

Lockdown has meant huge hardships for the hospitality industry. Urban Lime has been working with Florida Road Urban Improvement Project and businesses to keep the Florida Road precinct commercially viable. The idea is to develop cafe and retail recovery zones – a “streatery” allowing for more space for physically-distant shopping and dining; moving tables and chairs on to the streets as a spill-out for restaurants; and providing safe communal eating and retail.

The Benjamin in Florida Road is under new management and has become the Benjamin Apart Hotel offering accommodation at reduced rates for business travel and incentivising longer stays.

Urban Lime is looking at a Fitness Exchange which Friedman describes as a boutique offering for smaller groups.

“People are starting to return to their offices. Buildings such as Pioneer Place, is fully let with 200 micro manufacturing businesses.

It is important to get workspaces up and running with protocols in place. It is about getting kinks ironed out about compliance and security so people can earn income again. With property assets, we cannot be static, we have to be fluid.”

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A D V E RTO R I A L

I

n was in 1999 that founding director, Warren Bricknell, launched the company in uMhlanga with one assistant and a bakkie, supplying desktop and network support within the greater Durban area.

Fast forward 21 years, and today Mitsol builds, owns and operates its own fibre and microwave wireless network, servicing thousands of customers.

The evolution of technology during Mitsol’s lifetime has been exponential, incorporating the move to broadband over wireless and then to fibre, in answer to the country’s demand for faster, more reliable

LEFT: MITSOL MANAGING DIRECTOR WARREN BRICKNELL, WHO FOUNDED THE COMPANY 21 YEARS AGO.

Durban-based internet connectivity specialists, Mitsol, this month celebrate their 21st birthday, reinforcing their position as leaders in the fibre and wireless broadband sectors in KZN

customer service.”

Bricknell continues, “Mitsol’s strategy for growth is to continue expanding both our fibre and wireless footprint into new geographical areas and to continuously strive to remain ahead of the pack through innovation and dedication.

“Thanks to the outstanding devotion of the Mitsol team, we have many long-term customers who choose to remain with us, in addition to a constant flow of new sign-ups. Our technicians are on standby 24/7/365 to rectify any problems, giving customers peace of mind that their connectivity is

Two decades of firing up CONNECTIVITY

and best-value internet connectivity.

So just how and why has Mitsol survived for more than two decades in the highly competitive telecommunications sector in a sluggish economy?

Bricknell attributes the company’s staying power and growth to a firm dedication to progress and an unswerving customer service ethic. “We constantly invest in the best-of-breed technology – this keeps us ahead of the curve and, ultimately, ahead of the competition.

“Our customers benefit

from this approach as we ensure we always offer the fastest connectivity at the best value for money without compromising on quality and stability.

“We are constantly on the lookout for new ways to give customers good deals – for this reason we follow the Open Access model when we fibre up a housing estate or business park, partnering with several Internet Service Providers (ISPs).

This means customers get access to our high-tech service, but they are given the choice of operators

We ensure we always offer the fastest connectivity at the best value for money without compromising on quality and stability and deals. This healthy competition between the ISPs translates into more affordable deals, the elimination of longterm contracts and better

always our priority.”

And what is next on the horizon for Mitsol? Well, the cat’s out of the bag, and Bricknell is excited to announce the company’s launch of high-speed fibre into the greater Amanzimtoti area, where fibre is currently being laid to service a host of homes and businesses with highspeed internet.

“After lighting up ’Toti, we will research new areas where good-value internet connectivity is needed.”

0861 477 477 // info@mitsol.net www.mitsol.net

A D V E RTO R I A L

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KZN economic recovery PLAN KZN Treasury remains committed to fiscal prudence as budgets feel the Covid-19 pinch LEFT: KWAZULU-NATAL FINANCE MEC, MR RAVI PILLAY.

premised on the principle that key programmes must not be affected.

Savings have also been realised in respect of events, subsistence and travel.

Provincial Treasury remains committed to fiscal prudence and has therefore put measures in place to reduce risks which may arise from Covid-19 emergency procurement. The Department will perform oversight over all procurement while also placing a greater emphasis on oversight over health. New time-bound reporting and accountability mechanisms have been created to achieve this.

The government has introduced a R500billion economic support package to mitigate the worst economic effects of the pandemic

W

e are approaching the expected Covid-19 storm, with the immediate future seeing us face both health and economic crises. Being in the frontline of the pandemic, we must pledge unqualified support – and discipline – for our public health strategy; and regarding the economy of our country, the government has introduced a R500-billion economic support package to mitigate the worst economic effects of the pandemic.

Of the R500-billion, R100-billion was to be contributed from cuts in national departments’ budgets, and R30billion was to come from provinces.

Unfortunately, this meant KZN’s budget had to be revised downward by R6,2billion and redirected to the significant Covid-19 demands of health, education and social development.

In addition, our municipalities have received a further almost R2-billion to assist with their Covid-19 related expenditure.

KZN Finance MEC, Mr Ravi Pillay, said the reprioritisation process was

Existing austerity measures will be maintained and even deepened, while some non-core programmes will be postponed.

At the same time, the KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Government is driving an economic recovery plan. Central to this is a strong social compact between government, business, labour and civil society. Intense engagements are underway between the social partners, and 12 work streams are finalising recommendations for each sector, inter alia, agriculture, ICT, clothing and textile, tourism, and the informal sector.

We need to stay resolute, weather the Covid-19 storm and step-by-step rebuild the KwaZulu-Natal economy.

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ENTREPRENEURS

Don’t micro manage TALENT Grant Gavin recently ended his term heading the local chapter of the Entrepreneurs Organisation, a powerful networking and mentorship group. Shirley le Guern spoke to him

Q

As outgoing president, what challenges have you faced during your term?

Leading your employees in your business is a very different prospect to leading a group of entrepreneurs who are volunteering their time for free. Adjusting to this change was always going to be important to ensure each board member was allowed to bring their talents forward for the benefit of the chapter. A lot of leaders feel the need to micromanage, but, if you want to get the best out of people, you have to allow them the freedom to express themselves.

How do you balance EO, your business interests and other commitments?

I have had to learn very quickly that I am not needed in every single aspect of my business. I am fortunate that, in my property, I have amazing people. By empowering them to lead in their respective positions, they have all stood up and done an amazing job. Likewise, in EO, I was fortunate to have outstanding support. Growing a business is never done by one person.

Q

Q

What is your message to your successor?

When I took over, one of the first things I said to Shilpa was that she run the next term and she smiled and agreed. A leader has to want to stand forward and lead. Shilpa’s decision to stand is hugely positive for us at a time when we need strong leaders and entrepreneurs to stand tall in business.

What are your plans concerning your own development?

I have been chosen to sit on the regional board of EO and will be mentoring chapter presidents of Mauritius, Egypt and Lebanon. I will also continue to develop the agents in my own business and will be looking to grow my coaching business.

Q

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ENTREPRENURS

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Turning fear to HOPE Shilpa Mehta is the incoming president of the Durban chapter of the Entrepreneurs Organisation. Shirley le Guern spoke to her

Q

How do you hope to add value to EO? I’ve been an EO member for four years and served on the board for the last

two and have gained vast experience in that time. Being a woman of colour will help us attract diversity and strengthen

and grow the organisation.

My own leadership style is very collaborative. We will focus on our core values and leaning into our network during these uncertain times to ensure members derive value.

If you had three deliverables in the term you are at the helm, what are they?

Ensure our members are supported so the organisation continues to grow and position EO as the “go-to” organisation for any entrepreneur. It provides value to entrepreneurs to grow personally and in business while not losing sight of family.

Q

As entrepreneurs at the moment what we seem to do is inhale fear and exhale hope

Q

You are a busy entrepreneur heading up the electronic manufacturing service provider Production Logix. How do you make the time for this role?

It has been demanding time wise and I’ve had to sacrifice sleep and socialising, but at the same time it has been extremely

LEFT: OUTGOING PRESIDENT OF EO, GRANT GAVIN, WITH SHILPA MEHTA, THE INCOMING PRESIDENT.

rewarding seeing both grow and flourish. I am supported by an amazing team. I coown Production Logix with my brother Ushir who’s also an EO member. We are so focused and play to our strengths. EO has helped my confidence, focus and decision-making. It has been a very stabilising force in my life.

EO is seen by some as an elite organisation, open only to people with wealth. Do you feel the need to counter that?

Many EO members have started their businesses from scratch and have grown with hard work, dedication and lots of learnings. We recently launched the EO Accelerator programme which takes you through a two-year course on scaling up your business which is quite affordable to join.

How do the Durban chapter members (how many are there) help one another?

There are 52 members in Durban and 300 in SA. There are opportunities to network, to learn and grow from your peers as well as subject matter experts.

Our members sharing their Covid experiences has helped every member in their own way. To quote Verne Harnish: “As entrepreneurs at the moment what we seem to do is inhale fear and exhale hope.”

Q

Q

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WINTER 2020

PROFILE

One to WATCH

H

Durban-born Ravi Nadasen has left an impressive career in hotels to run private schools. Matthew Hattingh reports

itler quit painting for politics. Elon Musk flipped from online finance to building rocket ships and battery-powered cars. And Mick Jagger abandoned the London School of Economics for a life in rock ’n roll.

Dramatic career changes are nothing new.

Still, Ravi Nadasen’s recent move from a senior role in South African tourism to running a group of private schools has to be worth more than a mention. And moreso, when you remember that unlike the tyrant, tycoon and Old Rubber Lips, who were in their spring (or close to it) when they made the leap, Nadasen has spent the best part of 25 years in not only the same industry, but with the same company.

He leaves Tsogo Sun Hotels, the country’s largest JSElisted hotel group with 110 hotels, where he was chief operations officer, to become chief executive of the local arm of Inspired, the London-headquartered, privately held education company He leaves Tsogo Sun Hotels, the country’s largest JSE-listed hotel group with 110 hotels, where he was chief operations officer, to become chief executive of the local arm of Inspired, the London-headquartered, privately held education company. Nadasen also served on a number of industry and government advisory bodies, including as interim chairman of South African Tourism and deputy chairman of the Tourism Business Council of SA. The affable businessman said while it was a change of direction, the management skills he acquired over the years (buttressed by formal study) would travel well. The 45-year-old from Overport, Durban, says hotels are in his

Issue 09

PROFILE

BELOW: After 25 years in the hospitality business, Ravi Nadasen has moved to Inspired, a private education group.

blood. His late father, Tony Nadasen, was a waiter at the beachfront Elangeni Hotel and Nadasen remembers as a boy attending staff family functions there.

After matriculating from Overport Secondary he enrolled at ML Sultan College, doing the practical part of his Hotel Management diploma at the Wild Coast Sun. Nadasen caught the eye of Southern Sun’s regional HR director, Hugo Lamprechts, and after graduating phoned him, looking for a job. Yes, said Lamprecht, but the youngster needed to be at the Drakensberg Sun Resort the day after next. A Translux bus dropped him on the N3 near Estcourt and a hotel vehicle took him the rest of the way. It was April 1996. Six years later, Nadasen had worked his way up from assistant food and beverage manager to deputy general manager.

Further promotion followed, bringing him back to Durban and the Elangeni where he was made deputy general manager. Tony was still there, working in the coffee shop, and to be posted to the place “where my father had worked all my life was very special for me,” said Nadasen.

In 2005 he was promoted again, to general manager of Southern Sun Bloemfontein.

Two years later he was back in Durban at the Southern Sun Maharani, this time as general manager. The Cullinan, in Cape Town, was his next post, where he served as general manager until 2012.

Nadasen speaks with great enthusiasm of the many industry professionals he’s learnt from over the years. Then there are all the guests he’s met. “I’ve had loads of fun,” he said. In the early 2000s the Elangeni – with its substantial conference and banqueting facilities – was very much at the heart of Durban civic life. Nadasen got to know many local leaders, celebrities and sports stars, including Rudolph Straueli and Sachin Tendulkar.

From 2012, Nadasen received a series of promotions, ultimately becoming chief operating officer for the group in 2017. Saying goodbye would be a wretch. “I’ve had a good run, met some exceptionally good people.”

The turmoil Covid-19 has brought to tourism had nothing to do with it, nor the unbundling of Tsogo. It was more a case of “what is my next move?” Tsogo Sun financed and supported his studies over the years, allowing him to complete a BTech at the Durban University

WINTER 2020

41

of Technology, an Institute for Management Development leadership programme in Switzerland, and an MBA through the University of Stellenbosch.

Nadasen says he has tried not to box himself as a hotelier. “Running the business is core to what I do. It’s not about frying eggs, but about what are the drivers of the business.”

The operations side of hospitality and private education share a lot, including “running buildings and making sure customers are happy”. Inspired owns 12 private schools in South Africa under its Reddam House and Reddford House brands in Gauteng, the Western Cape and KwaZulu-Natal (in Ballito and uMhlanga).

Private or independent education was seen by many analysts as a growth industry, capitalising on the real and perceived failings of the state system. But it was also a fiercely competitive sector, with a number of well-established JSE-listed players, notably AdvTech (more than 100 schools in the continent and country plus tertiary interests) and Curro (166 schools plus other interests) dwarfing Inspired’s South African operations.

All promise small classes, child-centred learning and holistic education. Inclusivity was another oft-used word at a time when many of the country’s elite, not-for-profit private schools were being roiled by race issues.

Nadasen will need to get to grips with all these matters. But with the likes of Reddam House founder and Inspired group president Graeme Crawford on his board, it shouldn’t take long for him to come up to speed. Crawford is, of course, a veteran of the independent school business in this country having founded and subsequently sold the group of colleges that still bear his name to the AdvTech group.

Inspired chief executive Nadim Nsouli has indicated the group does not have immediate plans for more schools in the country and was hiring the hotelier for his operations and customer skills. But with 50 000 students on five continents and with an April private equity transaction valuing the company at €3,05-billion, the group has a substantial and growing global footprint.

Nadasen told KZN Invest his new employer’s international links were part of its appeal. Here’s a man who seems to be going places.

The operations side of hospitality and private education share a lot, including “running buildings and making sure customers are happy”

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P O L LU T I O N

J

anet Simpkins is an ecoactivist and the director of Adopt-a-River, an organisation that monitors KZN river pollution and does regular river clean-ups. We spoke to her about what companies and consumers can do to clean up.

Rivers provide a barometer of the ecological health of the region. How healthy is KZN, based on how much your teams pull out of the rivers and on water tests conducted?

Sadly, the health of our rivers countrywide – not only in KZN – are in serious need of intervention. There isn’t a day that goes by that we don’t hear of yet another sewerage spill into a river, which either flows into a dam or the ocean.

Sewerage is the most concerning for me – it’s not the kind of waste you can just “pick up”. Its effect on the ecosystem and communities that rely on the water is often devastating if left unchecked. Hopefully, with the focus on the tracing of Covid-19 hotspots through our sewerage systems, a task being undertaken by the Water Research Commission, this might draw some attention to the largely dysfunctional wastewater treatment facilities. Solid waste is a constant in what used to be beautiful natural

Q

A

Save our A HEALTH Q Rivers are vital monitors of corporate health, but we all need to work together to solve the problem

environments but are now polluted and in some cases choked with (mainly) plastic.

The Adreach team at Blue Lagoon consists of five people working six hours a day, four days a week and have collected over 11 000 refuse bags in nine months.

What does that say about the failure of waste separation upstream?

Q

A

The failure upstream is a waste management problem, the lack of formal waste collection in informal settlements is a huge contributor to what lands up in the river. Illegal dumping is another.

Having been involved with a team in the Mkhambathini Municipality area dealing mainly with disposable nappy

Q

dumping, what is the solution?

Major intervention with all stakeholders is required.

This will require action from mainly municipality and community engagement to change behaviour and put into place alternative options for disposal.

What kind of funding do you require in order to make a difference?

We can make a big difference with very little. R100 pays for an E. coli sample to ensure we have accurate information about the health of the river that isn’t visible to the naked eye. R1 000 can buy muchneeded equipment, R10 000 would allow a river team to work for an extra month, and anything over that can be used in a myriad of ways. Working together with municipalities and networking with other organisations in the same field allows us to get the

A

Issue 09

P O L LU T I O N

funds to where they are needed most and maximise the impact.

You say that the bulk of what is flushed down rivers and washed up on beaches are plastic cold drink bottles produced

by Coca-Cola Beverages South Africa.

Are you aware of what the company is doing to ameliorate its detrimental environmental impact?

Yes, they are a major contributor to the collected waste. I have engaged with the company on their environmental efforts, but to date I have not been able to get a satisfactory response on what they are doing to combat their waste landing up in the rivers and then on the beaches and in the sea.

They asked that I contact some people on the ground in KZN, but it’s been a run-around finding the right person.

Greater effort needs to be made to ensure the plastic bottle has a higher

WINTER 2020

Q

Q

River clean-ups are a wonderful response to the ghastly mess, but they aren’t the answer. How do you address this problem at the source? Do we have to demand retailers publicly audit their use of plastic packaging and take responsibility for collecting it?

The clean-ups are definitely just a short-term intervention in an effort to stop the waste from entering our water sources and ocean.

The government needs to address how we deal with waste and recycling, from bylaws right through to changing how we package. Corporates can also actively change the status quo – how about some new-age thinking in returning and reusing? Thirdly, consumers need to start to refuse. Ask for an alternative to polystyrene and take-away packaging, for alternatives to plastic bags, take your own coffee cup! Imagine if everyone changed one thing.

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ABOVE: JANET SIMPKINS – A DIRECTOR OF ADOPT-A-RIVER.

value than simply wanting to dump it.

If they worked on an effective solution at the source, we wouldn’t have to deal with as many bottles in the sea.

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Tel: +27 31 311 4227 Email: invest@durban.gov.za web: invest.durban

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The city of Durban (eThekwini Municipality) is South Africa’s second most important economic region

Extensive first-world road, rail, sea and air

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Named one of the New 7 Wonders Cities by the Swiss-based New 7 Wonders Foundation in 2014 1

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46

Issue 09

WINTER 2020

I N S P I R AT I O N

ABOVE: IT IS THE MIDDLE THAT TESTS US, SAYS TRAVIS GALE, LIFE COACH AND ENTREPRENEUR.

I N S P I R AT I O N

Issue 09

47

WINTER 2020

Motivation in THE MIDDLE Life coach and entrepreneur Travis Gale spoke to Shelley Seid about his new book, The Middle, which equips people through the vital territory on any journey

O

This book, The Middle, includes eight stories, drawn from eight key days of a world cycle tour, which will encourage and equip people through The Middle; the territory we must navigate in pursuit of our goals.

more start lines, be it my career as an entrepreneur, my marriage, parenthood, leadership positions, adventures and sporting endeavours.

“Many of these journeys have been far more significant and challenging than that initial tour itself. But I found that I was applying insights I learnt from

THE MIDDLE

n January 1, 1999, Durban boy Travis Gale joined Stephen Bonaconsa on a round-the-world cycle tour following his final year of high school. At 17, Gale was the youngest person to attempt such a feat. Their mission? To raise R1-million for children in KZN living with and affected by HIV and AIDS. On December 18 that year, the pair peddled back into Johannesburg, having successfully cycled over 16 000km across four continents and 16 countries, and raised R1,7-million for their cause.

Gale was frequently asked about KEEP GOING this experience and rarely spoke about the start or the end of the tour – and instead focused on the time in the middle. It is the middle, he says, that tests us. “That is where we need to dig deep, push through the barriers, show ourselves what we are capable of.”

Twenty-one years after that massive endeavour, Gale – now the director of the Appletree Group – has written a book, a reflection on what he learnt from his experience. It is, understandably, titled The Middle.

In the middle is where we deal with curveballs and contexts that you hoped you would never face, where barriers and giants exist to stop you from taking another step. “The middle is what we as human beings were designed for. We can all pitch up at start lines.

We can all celebrate a finish. But no finish is without a middle – we need to navigate the middle in order to reach the finish – and every middle is where who we are is revealed.”

In the middle is where we are shaped, he says, where our potential is realised and ultimately, where our stories are written.

“Since that day – January 1, 1999 – I have pitched up at many On 1 January 1999, Travis Gale (aged 17) and Stephen

Bonaconsa (aged 27) left Johannesburg on a mission

to cycle across four continents and raise R1 million for children living with, and affected by HIV/AIDS in

KwaZulu-Natal. They pedalled out of Johannesburg, riding mountain bikes equipped with panniers, carrying the basic requirements for an adventure. They rode unsupported. No Instagram or Facebook. It was just the

two of them and the open road. The pair successfully

cycled over 16 000 kilometres, across four continents,

through 16 countries, raising R1.7 million for their cause.

When asked to share about his experience, Travis very

the tour. The stories Travis shares are from The Middle.

It’s The Middle that tests us with challenges, yielding a multitude of emotions. It’s The Middle that involves the raw and often painful need to dig deep, to push through

the barriers that stand in our way, and show ourselves

Push through barriers that consistently get in the way.

Learn practical frameworks for making things happen.

Stretch yourself to do more than you thought possible.

Finish Well!

what we are capable of. The Middle is what we, as human beings, were designed for.

We can all pitch up at start lines. We can all celebrate a finish. But no finish is without a Middle and every Middle is where WHO WE ARE is revealed.

TRAVIS GALE

START THE MIDDLE

Develop grit and resilience in the midst of tough terrain.

TRAVIS GALE

rarely spends time talking about the start or the finish of

Increase momentum towards meaningful goals.

TRAVIS GALE

FINISH

HOW TO KEEP GOING IN PURSUIT OF YOUR GOALS ‘The newness has worn off. The euphoria has faded away. You come face-to-face with what you signed up for. And it’s not what you expected to see. You are now in The Middle.’

Some take-outs from The Middle

Mini milestones all add up.

Think big, plan small.

Plans change. Be present and agile.

Barriers sometimes win. Embrace and learn from failure. the ‘middle’ of the cycle tour, into the ‘middle’ of all my subsequent journeys.”

The book is a consolidation of stories and the lessons they taught him.

“The book is intended for anyone who is in the middle – the middle of a career, a project, a relationship, a challenging circumstance or a sporting

endeavour. This book is meant to support their ability to fuel their endurance, increase grit and resilience and keep going. I hope to develop a community of people who encourage each other through the middle and look forward to celebrating the many finishes that that community reach.

“It is also fitting that the book is being released during the middle of a very tough year!”

The book is a practical read, with chapters that could be consumed in one sitting. It comprises eight chapters, each covering a key day from the tour, with relevant insights.

Chapter one, for example, deals with Day five, the ride between Bloemfontein and Trompsburg. It was the first time the young Travis’s expectations of the tour and the reality of what he was experiencing didn’t line up. “I came face to face with what I had signed up for and it wasn’t what I expected to see. I wanted to give up and was consumed with doubt around my ability to complete the cycle tour, let alone the ride to Trompsburg. I call that challenging moment a ‘Day five’ moment. I believe every start is followed by a ‘Day five’. It may not be five actual days after you start, but it will come.”

How we keep going when we face up to Day five, and how we move through the barriers and challenges that stand in our way, are some of the questions Gale answers. The aim? To help navigate the middle and enjoy the journey.

“If this book supports people to keep going in pursuit of their goals, then I have achieved what I set out to do.”

The virtual launch of The Middle took place at the end of a two-day run (of course) on Saturday July 4, and was shared on social media.

The Middle is available at all good bookshops and online at Amazon.

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Issue 09

WINTER 2020

B R E W M A ST E R

Q

Zulu Blonde is an evocative name. Did it come to you in a flash after 25 pints?

Of course. What a silly question. No, seriously, the words “Zulu” and “Blonde” are two powerful and well-known words in the English language. “Zulu” is used in the phonetic alphabet and is worldrenowned in history books.

“Blonde” is also powerful.

It is associated with beauty, sex and silly jokes. Together they are a cocktail of confusion and intrigue.

Blond is a style of beer like Lager and Pale Ale. We’re from Zululand. It makes perfect sense.

Your family is synonymous with Eshowe, a picturesque town in the heart of Zululand largely unknown beyond a few locals and Greg Ardé (who idled his way through a few years of high school there).

Give the Philistines who haven’t visited there a potted family history.

It’s a place of rolling hills, hot sunsets and hadedas flying overhead, which is what our beer logo denotes. My grandfather Frank came here 100 years ago. We have been farming and running businesses and upliftment projects since. Guy Chennells helped build over 3 000 classrooms. Graham was mayor, brewmaster, sailor, paratrooper and Zulu linguist. I worked on the stock exchange and banking in the UK and then I visited breweries around the world before getting a brewing diploma in the USA. Your brewery was established on site at The George Hotel in Eshowe in 1997, alas, 10 years after I left town.

But now I see it in my local drankwinkel.

Well done!

A

Q

A

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invited back to the UK to brew another 120 000 pints at Everards Brewery in Leicester for the World Cup kick-off in 2010. We did the Rugby World Cup in the UK in 2015 and went back again in 2017. It can’t be half bad, or maybe the Poms were just thirsty. We are launching Zulu Blonde IPA in over 500 outlets in France this September which I am very excited about.

You are a master brewer. Does that mean you can organise a piss up in a brewery?

What’s the trick in it? To brewing, I mean.

If you can’t organise a piss up in a brewery, stay away from brewing!

Its a lot of graft. But it is my passion. The hard part is consistency. It has been a dream for over 18 years to have my beer on the shelf.

Finally, it is here despite all this chaos and it feels great!

Do you get more handsome/beautiful/ lucky when you drink Zulu Blonde?

I get loose after a few pints. If I add a Dirty Dam Water (Zululand rum), I find I’m really clever, but hopefully never to the point that I try and change someone’s beer preference. I just want you to taste a Zulu Blonde before you die. If you like it, you’ll have another. If not, no hard feelings.

Q

Beer & blondes ain’t no JOKE Hotelier, tour guide and brewmaster, Richard Chennells is the man behind Zulu Blonde, a beer that has notched up a string of awards.

Greg Ardé spoke to the entrepreneur

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Thanks, pal! We have just launched Zulu Blonde in KZN, including at Tops, Checkers and Pick n Pay. Nationally you can buy it online www.zulublonde. com and it should get to you pretty quickly. We also have our beers at quite a few pubs and restaurants, but we have to wait for the lockdown to finish before anyone can get a pint of the good stuff there.

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You took Zulu Blonde abroad. Cheeky. Nice one. How did that go?

We punched up. I brewed at Marston’s Brewery in Burton-uponTrent in the UK and supplied 800 pubs at the JD Wetherspoons International Real Ale Festival. Zulu Blonde was voted number one out of 50 ales and sold out in the first week of the three-week festival. I was

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ABOVE: HOTELIER, TOUR GUIDE AND BREWMASTER, RICHARD CHENNELLS.

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