Hard work has been rewarded with some exciting promotions

At Baobab Ridge we understand that our people are our greatest assets, and deserving of investment, providing them with ongoing training and skills development. We also encourage them to dream big - identifying talent and helping each staff member to reach their full potential and have a happy, satisfying career with us. So, when openings recently became available, we looked within our existing complement of staff to fill the positions...

"We advertised our vacancies internally to our staff and gave them the chance to apply for the jobs with a motivational letter, CV and any valid documents," says Baobab Ridge owner and founder, Nini Gouveris. "Lodge manager Nico van Zyl and I interviewed them and we made the our decisions, taking in account previous and current work experience, studies and, of course, aptitude for the positions on offer," she adds.

Based on Nini and Nico's findings, we're delighted to announced the following exciting promotions for four of our dedicated and truly inspirational members of staff...

Assistant Lodge manager- Amukelani Sithole

"Amu has been a shining star since he started with us in 2023, with an eye for detail and exceptional service to our guests," says Nini.

"He was employed as a waiter, but we didn’t know of his previous work experience as a duty manager and also as a teacher in hospitality.

We believe that with our support and guidance, he will be a great asset in teaching the other staff, especially when it comes to service training and how to assess what guests want before they request it. He is very reliable and hardworking, and we believe he will do an exceptional job. He will shadow Nico for the next few months and learn from him directly."

Lodge administrator- Minkhenso "Priviledge" Mkasi

"Khenso has studied labour law and has grown immensely in the two years she has been with us," explains Nini. "Even though she was employed as a waitress, being so reliable at work and knowing she had computer experience, I felt she would easily learn how to use our stock and reservations systems, so we trained her in the office. She has been a huge asset in the office and has shown to be forward thinking and very capable of finding solutions for problems that arise. We feel her strength is in administration and foresee her going much further in the future." 

Lodge anchor- Adelaide Mbowane

"Adelaide had no previous lodge experience and started in our scullery (2017). She showed such great enthusiasm that the previous managers decided to train her in waitering. She did very well in that role, but again I saw the potential in training her up, as she also had computer skills. Adelaide learnt very quickly and adapted to the role with ease. She even trained Minkhenso when she started in the office and she has been amasing with our guests. She has a really warm and helpful personality when it comes to our guests and has been very enthusiastic to make their stays extra special, arranging special treats and dances for our guests as a surprise. She will still do admin work in the office, but will focus more on our guest relations. We think she will flourish in her new position.

Head Chef- Dimakatso (Maggy) Mapayile

"Maggy has been with us since 2018 and has taken on the head chef role from time to time, in between us hiring new head chefs," says Nini. "She is very comfortable with how things work at the lodge and has had great ideas that have greatly contributed to our lodge menus. She is very confident that she will manage very well in her new role and will receive additional training from us and of course lots of support, to help her grow in her new role."