Staff from City Lodge Hotel Lynnwood, which is located at the Lynnwood Bridge complex on the eastern side of Pretoria, recently visited Eersterus Old Age Home in Pretoria to bring them some a “sweet” surprise ahead of Christmas.

They arrived at the home armed with loads of sweets to bring some festive cheer into the lives of the senior citizens residing there.  As can be seen by these photos, their tasty treats were well received by the home’s residents. This is another demonstration of the City Lodge Hotel group’s “I’m Kind” programme in action. Opened in 2010, the 205-room City Lodge Hotel Lynnwood has become a popular accommodation destination for both business and leisure travellers in the Pretoria area. Ever since its opening, the hotel has ensured that it makes a meaningful contribution towards improving the lives of the less fortunate in nearby communities.  

City Lodge Hotel Lynnwood is one of several City Lodge Hotel Group hotels in the Pretoria area – the others being City Lodge Hotel Hatfield, Courtyard Hotel Arcadia, Town Lodge Menlo and Road Lodge Centurion. Importantly, it is not just at Christmas time that hotels in the City Lodge Hotel Group benefit the needy and less fortunate in various communities around the country. It happens throughout the year on a regular basis.

The group’s “I’m Kind” programme involves various acts of kindness that benefit children, the aged and other needy people. Hotels adopt projects within their neighbouring communities and get involved in helping them with various maintenance activities – such as painting – and through the donation of linen and various other items. Through bookings on its website, the group also donates money on behalf of guests to Hospice and Food & Trees for Africa. An annual donation is also made to the Cancer Association of South Africa as a result of tea and coffee bought by guests at 21 Road Lodges around the country.    

Aquila Private Game Reserve has been honoured to be awarded the prestigious Imvelo Economic Large Impact award.

The Lilizela Imvelo Awards recognise and celebrate tourism and hospitality businesses that practice exemplary responsible, sustainable and fair business practices.

Imvelo means ‘nature’ in South Africa’s Nguni languages. The Award identifies and rewards tourism and hospitality businesses that make measurable, persistent contributions to responsible, sustainable and fair tourism, setting an example to other tourism business both in South Africa and around the world.  

Aquila Private Game Reserve focuses most of its social upliftment, job creation, skills development, sustainable charity programmes and empowerment efforts in the previously “doomed” and forgotten town of Touws River which is situated 12kms from Aquila, where Aquila’s workforce resides.  

The town was built around a railway servicing plant that closed down in the 1980s, leaving 97% unemployment amongst the approximately 12 000 previously disadvantaged residents.  

14 years ago, Searl Derman (the owner and founder of Aquila) noticed starving residents cutting rotten, maggot infested meat from a 3 week old horse carcass, and he made it his personal goal to resurrect the town. At that stage, the biggest seller in the local supermarket was “pets mince”, and it was not uncommon to see mothers holding their babies, standing outside their shacks to catch the first rays of sunlight, trying to stay warm. Aquila had to get involved!  

We are proud to say that over the past 14 years, Aquila has paid an exceptional amount in salaries, which has empowered the locals and created flourishing primary, secondary and tertiary small businesses. Aquila is the largest employer in the area with approximately 280 permanent staff members. Over 400 staff (including temporary staff) have been on our monthly payroll. As one person feeds approximately 9 people in the community, approximately 30% of Touws River is directly dependant on Aquila’s salaries. The Xenephobic-causing influx of African Nationals to De Doorns has resulted in the potential loss of + 600 temporary grape picking jobs and the final completion of the 44MW solar plant will leave more families hungry and cold. Fortunately Aquila has broken ground building an additional hotel and spa, which should lessen the critical situation for the community.

We believe that we have resurrected the town of Touws River, and although it still faces challenges, we hope that Aquila’s and Touws River’s successes will jointly grow from strength to strength.

Set in the pristine Southern Karoo Highlands against a backdrop of dramatic mountains, the Aquila Private Game Reserve offers an exciting taste of real Africa just two short hours from Cape Town by road. 

Aquila is home to an enormous variety of game, including the Big 5 -- elephant, rhino, lion, buffalo and leopard -- giraffe, zebra, wildebeest, many different antelope, baboons, jackal, bat-eared foxes, hippos and crocodiles. And many migratory birds stop en route at Aquila's own wetland.  Two- to three-hour game drives are a perfect way to see the animals (in four-wheel-drive vehicles, quad bikes or on horseback).

Contact: Michelle Marais, Social Media and Marketing Manager for Aquila Private Game Reserve, on 076 148 4202

Maya Keel, Director of COACH is the Acting Chairperson for the Gauteng Welfare and Social Services Development Forum and the Deputy Chairperson for the National Welfare and Social Services Development Forum. In September, the National Social Development Portfolio Committee invited the Forum to present input into how the non-profit sector can support the work of the Committees and the challenges that the NPO sector faces.

Based on the input from various provincial forums, COACH presented this to members of parliament. The presentation was very well received and many questions were posed about the funding crisis experienced by the NPO sector and how best it can be resolved.

Many recommendations were given, the main one being the legislation being put into place that determines the partnership between the Department of Social Development and non-profit organisations. This can determine the funding model to be used, with special emphasis on; parity of social worker and social auxiliary worker’s salaries, and to ensure that the state meets it’s statute obligations with regards to the Children’s and Older Persons Act.

This in turn will lead to the sustainability of Child and Youth Care Centres and Old Age Homes respectively.  It can also lead to improved infrastructure to deal with children in crisis by becoming proactive and preventative as opposed to only being reactive. Some serious concerns about the survival of the NPO Sector were noted by members.

To this end, Maya Keel received and open invitation to Parliamentary Social Development Portfolio Committee meetings in the future. This is a great honour for COACH as it has always strived for the advocacy of better opportunities and safer environment for children and has been an active partner in the transformation of services and developmental approach to child and youth care.    

We are thrilled to announce that both the public and private sectors appear to recognize the value of board diversity as BPW SA has been approached in the last month alone, to assist with eleven board vacancies for women on our Register.  Women and men have different interests and perspectives in important areas, and boards are starting to see the importance of utilising these varying experiences to tackle the tremendous challenges. 

BPW SA and the Department of Trade & Industry (the dti) want boards of directors to widen the search for talent by looking beyond the traditional pool of executives and bring new potential to light.  It is for this reason that we have joined forces to provide a Women on Boards programme to create a Register of female leaders in South Africa who are excellently trained and, as a result, are highly sought after by Boards.  After all, why on earth would you voluntarily exclude half the smart people?

Our first group of 19 senior women, all thoroughly trained through our 9-month Women on Boards director development programme and certified by the dti, are now available on our register of Board Potential Women Directors and we urge companies to contact us for potential female directors.

Seven of our graduates are in line for board interviews , many have been interviewed by the media – both radio and magazines – and all will be profiled in the KZN Chamber of Commerce Power Book (2015). As an ongoing service to the graduates, BPW SA continues to raise their profile in an effort to access suitable board placements.  We have proven that board diversity is not a supply problem, but rather a demand problem.

BPW SA is proud to announce that we have incorporated an international module into the Women on Boards programme.  Business acumen - incorporating business finance and strategy - a must in today’s complex landscape. Business acumen is a keen understanding of what it takes for an organization to make money.  It combines financial literacy – the ability to interpret numbers on financial statements – with business literacy – recognizing how strategies and decisions impact these numbers.  Call it a sophisticated business simulation. Call it an exercise in experiential learning. Or call it a board game. Whatever you label it, the simple fact is that the training is fun and will gives participants a true competitive edge.

A recent Women on Board graduate, Tebogo Maziya, who holds a Masters degree in Science, a postgraduate diploma in finance and a B Comm degree says the nine-month journey has been fulfilling. “I learnt there’s a risk and that that risk is manageable. So it’s important for the board to be transparent and accountable and for a board member to be aware of decisions made because they will be held accountable.”  Another graduate, Amantha Maharaj, a BSc electrical engineering graduate with an MBA, who works a top management level at an engineering consultancy says of the programme: “It teaches one to know how a board is structured, what to do, and questions one needs to ask when sitting on a board. It also teaches business risk and how one should view business from a higher level. It was certainly value for money.”

For more information about our Women on Boards Programme, please visit our website at www.bpw-jhbsa.co.za or contact us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or (011) 794-4991.

Business & Professional Women (BPW SA), and the Department of Trade & Industry (the dti) are hosting a business breakfast on 7th August 2014 to launch a unique 3-day Women’s Empowerment Programme in South Africa to provide registered SME’s with the legislative knowledge required to effectively run their business within the parameters of South African law.  

The breakfast is hosted by DDG Mr Mojalefa Mohoto and DDG Mrs Pumla Ncapayi from the DTI and BPW South Africa as well as senior representatives from the JSE and UN-Women and the Commonwealth Business Council.  Various international Ambassadors and High Commissioners will host tables at the event.  A sponsorship fund will be launched at the breakfast for qualifying enterprises.  

Organisations of all sizes in South Africa need to develop and apply sound governance, risk and compliance principles and institute high ethical values. Failure to do so will have devastating consequences for the organisation, including penalties.   For SMEs, the biggest challenge is a lack of understanding around the difficulties associated with becoming compliant.   Understanding the ever-changing regulations makes the difference between a small business thriving – growing the economy and creating jobs – or closing its doors, and thus closing the door on job creation.  

Simply put, you need to know your laws. Know your rights and obligations. In this way you mitigate risk to yourself, your business, your employees and your customers. If done well, it helps to improve business performance and ensure financial success.   If you would like to be part of this Women’s Empowerment Programme, we invite you to join us at this Business Breakfast – tickets are R500 per person or R5000 per table of 10.   

For more information, or to attend the Business Breakfast,
please visit our website at http://www.bpw-jhbsa.co.za/index.php/events/30-future-events/98-business-training-courses.
Website: www.bpw-jhbsa.co.za

The Twitter Blanket Drive (TBD) is a uniquely South African, community-driven response to the needs of the poor during the winter months of the year. Initiated in 2010 by Founder, Melanie Minnaar, the Twitter Blanket Drive started with a single tweet:

What if each person on Twitter donated a blanket?

Since then, the Twitter Blanket Drive movement has grown exponentially, and thousands of blankets have been collected, and thereafter distributed to a range of social assistance organisations across the country. For 2014, events will be held across the country on 29 May. Through a well-coordinated and objectively managed process, collection points and events are created across the country. Various events are held and take the form of a “Tweetup”, whereby Twitter users tweet about donating their blankets and all enjoy a meal or drink at the collection point. Collection points have generally been restaurants or cafes.

The Twitter Blanket Drive has injected a true sense of community into the South African Twittersphere, as Twitter users across the country join in to help disadvantaged communities keep warm during the winter months.

Official #TBD2014 events will take place at:

Johannesburg – Protea Hotel, Fire and Ice - 22 Whitley Street, Melrose Precinct 

Cape Town – Protea Hotel, Fire and Ice - New Church Street, Tamboerskloof

Durban – Protea Hotel, Umhlanga Ridge – 14 Palm Boulevard, Umhlanga

Drop off Venues Include 

Spiga D’Oro (Morningside)         Spiga D’Oro (Durban North)          St Clement’s (Musgrave)

For people who are unable to attend the main event on 29 May, there are also a number of collection points across the cities – tweet @tbdafrica for a full list! For Durban, blanket collection boxes have been placed at: The Durban Twitter Blanket Drive will collect blankets for Grace Family Church. All blankets donated will be handed over to Grace Family Church, who will distribute them to a variety of social assistance organisations throughout KwaZulu-Natal.

ENDS For more information on events, blanket collection points and beneficiaries, please contact: Durban Twitter Blanket Drive Event Organiser – Fred Felton @fredfelton Johannesburg Twitter Blanket Drive Event Organiser – Serena Grobler @SerenaCG Cape Town Twitter Blanket Drive Event Organiser – Merentia van der Ven - @Merentia Follow the Twitter Blanket Drive on Twitter: #TBD2014 @tbdafrica

Web: www.twitterblanketdrive.wordpress.com

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