KWAZULU- NATAL, PIETERMARITZBURG, 22 SEPTEMBER 2016 – After weeks of intense voting, Cascades Lifestyle Centre has announced that Rene Morcom of PMB Assist is the winner of their inaugural Woman of Substance Campaign, which was run throughout the month of August in celebration of Women’s month.

Rene Morcom, co-founder of Thandi House, which is Assist PMB's flagship project, received the highest number of votes ahead of Sinikiwe Biyela (Lifeline PMB and Rape Crisis Flagship), Julie Hay (Singakwenza) and Caro Smit (South Africans Against Drunk Driving - SADD).

As the winner of the Cascades Woman of Substance, Morcom receives R5000, and PMB Assist, receives a donation of R5 000, courtesy of Cascades Lifestyle Centre, as a ‘thank you’ for the great work that she does in the community.

Says Rene Morcom, co- founder of Thandi House, "R10 000 can help make a big impact in the lives of abandoned babies, abused and neglected children, and children who are unloved and unwanted by their families due to being severely mentally or physically disabled. Every child deserves love and a family regardless of their circumstance"

Cascades Lifestyle Centre’s inaugural Woman of Substance Campaign was the first of its kind for the Centre, and formed part of the centre's celebrations of Women's Month. It was established to raise awareness of these organisations in Pietermaritzburg, and others like it, and to let women working for their communities know that they are appreciated.

The campaign was well received, with the various charities actively promoting their women leaders and encouraging people to vote.

Says Michelle Chinnu, Property Manager at Ducatus, mastermind of this campaign, "The response that we have had from the community has been truly inspiring. It was such a close vote. Only a handful difference between them. We salute these women, and many others just like them, who are doing amazing work for people and animals in our communities."  

Compiled by Hot Salsa Media on behalf of Cascades Lifestyle Centre

For all press enquiries please contact Viv Quann at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Boilerplate:

About Cascades Lifestyle Centre

The Cascades Lifestyle Centre is currently being renovated into one of the top shopping centres in South Africa. It will be ready by December 2016 and will contain only one of a handful of Woolworths Food Concept stores.

Committed to an ethos of service delivery, makes Cascades your “one stop” neighbourhood shopping centre catering for all your needs in a friendly, efficient and personal manner.

This beautiful retail hub puts special emphasis on looking out for the elderly and trendy, ensuring that they all audience sectors enjoy their shopping in style whilst being a trendy social meeting place for family and friends.

As a community shopping centre located in Montrose, Cascades offers both food, fashion, social and sport facilities with Woolworths, Checkers, a large variety of restaurants and cafes, a Virgin Active, Sportsman’s Warehouse and the Cascades Mountain Bike Park grounds catering to everything you could wish for.

In this fast moving world, Cascades also houses local businesses offering beautiful home-and-giftware, fresh flowers, baby and adult fashion with a standard of service that has enduring appeal.  

Find out more: www.cascadeslifestylecentre.co.za

Latest news: www.facebook.com/cascadeslifestylecentre

Keep up with the conversation here: #CascadesLife

KWAZULU-NATAL, PIETERMARITZBURG, 10^th August 2016 – Launching on Friday, the 12^th of August and running throughout the month of August at the Cascades Lifestyle Centre is the Cascades Women of Substance campaign. Cascades Lifestyle Centre has selected four Pietermaritzburg women-led charities doing substantial work for women in the community, and ask Cascades residents and shoppers to vote for the woman they would like to see win. The woman with the most votes received by the end of August, will win R5 000 plus another R5 000 donated to the charity they head up. Voting can only be done at the three dedicated voting stations located throughout the Cascades Lifestyle Centre from Friday, 12^th August 2016.

At each voting station there will be a pad of voting slips. Tick your favourite, add your name and signature and pop it into the box. Says Michelle Chinnu, Property Manager at Ducatus, mastermind of this campaign, “August is about honouring hero-women and what better way to do this than highlight some of the extraordinary work being done by ordinary women in our Pietermaritzburg community. We hope that the prize money will go some way into helping them help more women in need, plus a little gift from us to say thank you.” The four women selected are Sinikiwe Biyela (Lifeline PMB and Rape Crisis), Caro Smit (SADD - South Africans against Drunk Driving), Rene Morcom (Assist, Thandi House), and Julie Hay (Singakwenza) Sinikiwe Biyela is the Director at Lifeline PMB and Rape Crisis.

This organisation promotes emotional wellness for individuals and communities and offers a 24/7 helpline. Biyela has extensive experience aimed at preventing HIV infection, and in assisting women in their recovery from traumatic experiences. She was a finalist in the Shoprite Checkers Women of the Year Awards in 2012 for her GBV work, and in 2014, was a finalist in Africa’s Most Influential Women in Business and Government. Says Biyela, “We are extremely grateful to have the Cascades Centre promote the services available to women in Pietermaritzburg, and look forward to this campaign raising awareness.” Caro Smit launched SADD - South Africans against Drunk Driving - after her 23 year old son, Chas, was killed by a drunk driver. Smit believes that the best way to get over adversity is to help others. Smit says “You can help yourself overcome adversity, plus make a difference to others, by getting involved with one of many charities, or if there is not a suitable charity available - get one started!” Today, SADD supports many victims and families after drink-driving crashes and offers advice for court.

Rene Morcom is co-founder of Thandi House, Assist PMB’s flagship project. It a family-centred home caring for sick, orphaned, abandoned, abused and disabled children of all ages. Morcom believes no matter what hardships women face, women have a strength that can see them through. “Look inside yourself and believe in your own potential,” she says. Julie Hay is co-founder of non-profit organisation, Singakwenza, which provides sustainable early childhood education in economically disadvantaged areas using resources made solely from recycling. Hay says, “Young children learn best when they are actively involved in play but the cost of educational toys is prohibitive to around 5.2 million children under the age of four. The only way we are going to change our education statistics is by improving access to early childhood development programmes.” To vote for your Woman of Substance, visit Cascades Shopping Centre from Friday 12^th August and fill out a voting form found at one of the three voting stations located throughout the Centre. Campaign ends on Wednesday 31^st August 2016.

Compiled by Hot Salsa Media on behalf of Cascades Lifestyle Centre For all press enquiries – email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

PIETERMARITZBURG, KWAZULU-NATAL, 14^TH JULY 2016 - Mandela Day is a global call to action that promotes the idea that each person has the power to transform the world, therefore on the 18^th of July 2016, the Cascades Lifestyle Centre in Pietermaritzburg is partnering with two leading conservation groups, the Dusi uMngeni Conservation Trust (DUCT) and GroundTruth, to host an educational workshop for 70 local students to receive interactive training on water conservation and river health. The Clean Rivers, Education and Training Day initiative will take place alongside the Townbush River next to the Cascades Lifestyle Centre from 8am to 12pm on Monday, 18 July 2016.

The 70 students taking part are all volunteers on DUCT’s River Care programme, which is a non-profit initiative focused on cleaning the Msunduzi and Umgeni Rivers. These volunteers regularly meet up to help clear invasive plants and waste from the banks of Pietermaritzburg’s rivers. The Cascades Lifestyle Centre will be sponsoring the infrastructure for the event, including trestle tables, gazebos and chairs, as well as refreshments for the students and training bodies. Coffeeberry Café, which is located at the Cascades Lifestyle Centre, will be sponsoring 100 cups of coffee for the workshop attendees, while Cascades Woolworths will be sponsoring lunch for the attendees. Throughout the morning, the students will be shown a range of tools that they can use to monitor the rivers they are working on, while also learning about the building blocks of a healthy river. The environmental and Government agencies conducting the training sessions include GroundTruth, DUCT, uMgungundlovu Municipality, WESSA, the WWF Nedbank Green Trust, Mondi and the Department of Water & Sanitation.

Ntswaki Ditlhale, Aquatic Ecologist at GroundTruth, says “With South Africa experiencing its worst drought in 30 years, maintaining and restoring river health has never been as important as now. GroundTruth and DUCT are passionate about helping people realise the relationship between human life and clean river systems. This is achieved by creating awareness and educating communities about aquatic ecosystems with the aid of citizen science tools. Special events, such as this, provide opportunities for communities to learn about the importance of river water and use their gained knowledge to bring about change.” Michelle Chinnu, Cascades Property Manager, says “Although this is not a public event, the public are very welcome to come over and interact with the organisations at the event. It will be very interesting”

Compiled by Hot Salsa Media on behalf of Cascades Lifestyle Centre For all press enquiries – email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

PIETERMARITZBURG, KWAZULU-NATAL, 14 JULY 2016 - The 2016 South African MTB XCO & DHI National Championships are to be held at the Cascades MTB Park at Cascades Lifestyle Centre in Pietermaritzburg this Saturday and Sunday, the 16-17 July.

In anticipation of the turnout, Cascades Lifestyle Centre is encouraging its tenants to come out of their stores and create promotions for the weekend, and table presentations in the walkways of the centre. The cafés and restaurants are readying themselves for a sporting entourage, welcoming competitors and family and friends with great healthy food options.

The South African XCO MTB National Championship will feature cross-country (XCO) mountain bike riders from as young as 11 years old (sprogs) to nippers, youth, sub-juniors, juniors, Elite, under 23’s, sub-veterans, veterans, masters to grand masters (60 years +).

Each category will complete a number of laps, usually ranging from 2 laps up to 7 laps. Cross-country in mountain biking is the pinnacle of mountain biking. It is tough and requires fitness and biking skills for obstacles. The toughness of the National Champs will be down to Cascades MTB Park cross-country (XCO) course designer, Nick Floros. Revered for his tough international-class courses, he has created a completely different course for SA Champs this weekend.  

As with all of Floros’s courses, having the time to practice on the course in advance will be an advantage. Even though it is an advantage, the ladies race at World Champs revealed anything can happen, even with a home-ground advantage.

Floros courses are highly respected as he became the first man to test the course for the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games when he journeyed to Brazil in 2015. Floros, according to a tweet by International Cycling Union (UCI) technical delegate, Simon Burney, is the man behind the building of the course, which Burney termed “awesome”.

Through hard work and a natural instinct for what will challenge and thrill competitors, Floros, a Hilton College Old Boy, has earned his revered reputation as an XCO course designer, with the Cascades MTB Park rated as one of the top three XCO courses in the world by the UCI.

The National Downhill Championships boasts a brand new track for Sunday’s event, much to the excitement of the riders. Race organisers also said that special mention needed to go out to Tim Bentley and other local downhill riders who made efforts in the assistance of the track build.

To view the STIHL 2016 SA MTB Championships – Programme of events, click here: http://www.cyclingsa.com/s/20160707_SA-MTB-Champs-2016-Program-1.pdf. 

Compiled by Hot Salsa Media on behalf of Cascades Lifestyle Centre

For all press enquiries – email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. / 084 486 2136