WeeklySA_AdminGraduates: Kruger Shalati is one of the many lodges where graduates are making their mark
By Thuli Zungu
Three young women are seizing the initiative and making strides in Mpumalanga’s tourism and hospitality industry, and one has even discovered an entrepreneurial streak – defying the odds stacked against them in an area where youth unemployment has reached nearly 65%.
With hard work, determination and sheer grit, Lwazi Thobela,23, Vutivi Mthimkhulu,25 and Mampho Makofane,31, have shrugged off difficult circumstances that often come with living in rural villages to become active participants in the burgeoning wildlife economy in and around the Kruger National Park.
The luxury and comfort of the Kruger Shalati private lodge – which straddles the Sabie River in Skukuza and offers converted train carriage accommodation on its distinctive Train on the Bridge – is a far cry from the humble streets of Mkhuhlu, 40km away, where some of these young women hail from. Yet it is one of the many private lodges dotted around the Kruger National Park that are investing in local communities by employing work-ready graduates such as these.
They are in strong demand thanks to the Good Work Foundation (GWF), an education non-profit operating five digital learning campuses in the Hazyview and Bushbuckridge areas.
With dreams of becoming a chef, Thobela’s plans were put on hold when she fell pregnant in her teens but now, with the support of her GWF family, she has found a balance between being a caring mother and pursuing her ambitions.
After motherhood came knocking, she resolved to resume her education journey by enrolling in GWF’s Bridging Year Academy, gaining digital and work-readiness skills to have a fighting chance at getting a job in rural Mpumalanga. She then studied hospitality at the foundation’s Travel & Tourism Academy but fate again threw obstacles in her path. “Previously, I would have had the opportunity to do chef training in Graaff-Reinet but had to decline because of family commitments. Then, when I was offered a position at Hippo Hollow Country Estate in Hazyview, my child was sick and I couldn’t take up the position. But the Good Work Foundation kept in touch with me, constantly checking in to ask how I am faring and if I needed assistance finding work.’’
“When the opportunity to do an internship at Kruger Shalati came up, Madam Tarshine [Mafuyeka, the GWF Hospitality Academy coordinator] phoned me to ask if I am interested – and here I am.
I am hoping the internship [via the Youth Employment Service] will become permanent in time.”Lwazi said being patient, humble and working hard were some of her personality attributes that have got her this far plus the support of her GWF mentors who kept urging her to chase her dreams.
Another example of empowerment in action is Mtimkhulu who tends the bar at Kruger Shalati. After completing her BYA post-school training to become more digitally literate, she enrolled in a short course in hospitality management – with GWF assisting her with the practical component.
This helped her secure a job at Shalati in 2020. “I was nervous at first, but luckily I had learned how to use a computer at the Good Work Foundation, so I was not starting out with a blank slate. I began as a cashier then I moved on to be a barista – and now I am working as a bar lady.”
But she is taking self-empowerment a step further. She saved money and bought a Toyota Avanza, and is now the proud owner of a taxi.
“I can now firmly say that I am a businesswoman. My mom was so proud of me when I bought the taxi. She said to me : ‘‘That is why I named you Vutivi – your name means ‘knowledge’ in Xitsonga, and you have shown that you really are knowledgeable.”
This young entrepreneur says her GWF certificate has opened many doors. “I love it here. There are so many opportunities and avenues for growth.
I am now a permanent member of the Shalati staff. I can feed myself and my family – and it’s all thanks to GWF’’.
Makofane, a cashier at the Kruger Station restaurant, run by Kruger Shalati, says she has been working there since it opened two years ago, having studied at GWF’s IT Academy and then at its Travel & Tourism Academy. The practicals at different hotels and restaurants gave her valuable experience to help her land her current job. “I was so happy when I got my first pay cheque. My family are very proud of me being a breadwinner” .
She loves working at Kruger Shalati, alongside a group of young people who also studied at GWF: “The other GWF staff here are my friends and family.” Makofane has advised other young women to “keep on pushing, keep on pulling your socks up, because one day you will get a job. GWF has improved my life. I never thought I would be here, working at Kruger Shalati.”
“I see myself being a manager. I want to see myself growing here.” Vincent Mlambo, Human Resources Manager at Kruger Shalati, says there are currently eight GWF graduates working at the lodge.
“They come to us fresh from graduating and they know their theory and how to follow the necessary steps. It’s easy to teach and guide them, as they are applying the knowledge they have’’. Mlambo says GWF graduates always impress them with their knowledge during interviews and most of them receive Employee of the Month awards, nominated by fellow staff members – some more than once.
“We find they are great team players and can assist us across departments.” Kruger Shalati is but one of the many lodges where GWF graduates are making their mark and Lwazi, Vutivi and Mampho are just three of the many success stories of GWF’s pioneering Ecosystem of Learning and Working.
For a nominal commitment fee, young school-leavers at its Bridging Year Academy and career academies learn essential digital and workreadiness skills.
GWF uses its relationships with lodges and other partners to get these graduates placed – a win-win situation, because the establishments know they are hiring quality employees. This effectively helps Mpumalanga to grow its own timber by producing job-ready graduates – all fired up and ready to assume the mantle of family breadwinner with pride.
LATE VETERAN PLAYWRIGHT AN UNSUNG HERO IN HIS COUNTRY
Prolific: He was a prolific political and cultural activist whose approach to theatre was unique
By Victor Mecoamere
Legendary theatre and television allrounder Selaelo Maredi (85) who died in Alexandra, Gauteng last Thursday after a long illness, was highly respected in the United States of America, but unheralded in his motherland.
This is the lament that is shared by iconic dance tutor and choreographer, Nomsa Manaka and stage, television and film actor, Mpho “Fats” Molepo.
“I was with him about a month ago,” Manaka told Weekly SA Mirror this week. “I learnt a lot from Ntate Maredi. It is sad that he was not celebrated enough. We never celebrate our greats in South Africa. ” Manaka worked with Maredi in the veteran actor, playwright, director and producer’s two plays – Black Age and Bound by Love. She – together with several other artists – was planning to invite Maredi to a special tribute event in Johannesburg Next month. Molepo said it was on account of the nature of politics in South Africa that Maredi, whom he described as having been an encyclopaedia of South African theatre, was not properly celebrated.
“When you are of advanced age in our country, they sideline you,” Molepo lamented. “Ntate Maredi spent 17 years in San Francisco and returned home in 1994. He proved himself in many ways, but he was never honoured.” A dismayed Molepo, who is the son of master puppeteer, Arthur Molepo, said a similar fate had befallen Tony Award winner, Mokae, who first worked in England before settling in the United States in the 1960s. He died in 2009 aged 75. “Both Ntate Maredi and Ntate Mokae were respected overseas but they were overlooked and shunned in their homeland.”
Arthur Molepo, Peter Sephuma, Sello Maake ka Ncube, Generations star, Mpho Molepo (not related to Arthur Molepo and his son, “Fats”) also honoured Maredi. He was born in Sophiatown west of Johannesburg in 1938 and grew up in Alexandra, where his passion about the arts emerged in his late teens when he wrote and directed two
award winning plays – A little education is dangerous and It’s my blackness they hate, not me. Maredi later played a pivotal role in popularising highly politicised experimental theatre that inspired the likes of Mbongeni Ngema and Percy Mtwa, who branched out of the conventional theatrical expressions of Gibson Kente to stage their own multiple role two hander, Woza Albert.
“He (Maredi) was a political and cultural activist,” said Sephuma. “His approach to the arts, especially theatre, was unique. He selected his work carefully. He actually took me by the hand in 1971 to introduce me to his fellow experimental theatre innovator at the Workshop 71 production company at Wits University, and it completely changed my artistic life and how I viewed theatre forever.”
Arthur said : “He was one guy who – if you pricked his finger, expecting blood to come out – only oozed oodles of love for the arts, especially theatre. Theatre was his life. He recruited me for Workshop 71. What a prolific writer, director and producer he was. I will miss his many ideas, innovations and motivational nous.”
Mpho Molepo, who gave Maredi an opportunity to teach, mentor, coach and cast the students and graduates of his Alexandra Theatre Company and Academy for Black Age in 2022, said : “He was a highly skilled tutor, motivator, coach and was truly one of South Africa’s unsung heroes. He was still nurturing aspirants at 85 years of age.”
To further honour Maredi, Molepo’s company and academy will now be known as the Selaelo Maredi Theatre Company and Academy.
After he also echoed the complaint that Maredi was an unsung hero in his homeland, Maake ka Ncube said this was because “the new dispensation never creates a dignified space for many people like him, who – to quote from Stephen Spenders’ The Truly Great – should be “feted by the waving grass, and by the streamers of white cloud and the whispers of the wind in the listening sky. The names of those, who in their lives fought for life, who wore at their hearts the fire’s centre. Born of the sun, they travelled a short while towards the sun and left the vivid air signed with their honour.”
A memorial service for Maredi was held at the Alexsan Kopano Community Resource Centre in Alexandra on Wednesday. His funeral was held at Bochum in Polokwane, Limpopo.
