Trainees honoured for completing their practical

The first game reserve and ecotourism project which is 100% community owned and operated, recently honoured 28 trainees of the Mabelane community who successfully completed the practical segment of their one-year training.

In 1996 an official land claim was handed in and 13 years later on April 18, 2009 the land was officially handed over to this community. “We have fought for the land and we will still fight for more,” MJ Mabelane, Mugaba deputy chairman said during the ceremony. After the claim was successfully completed a special team, consisting from various key roleplayers such as mentors and trainers, were deployed to ensure that the Mabelane community had the necessary skills to make a positive contribution towards the eco-tourism industry, insuring sustainability and profitability.

“Business today is not easy with a very high percentage of failure even in the best of circumstances, and it was for this reason that the process followed with training was designed to offer a significant level of adversity which is always converted to strength in the long run,” Conrad van Eyssen, managing director of the Kwa Madwala Private Game Reserve, said.

According to Van Eyssen, the trainees at Mugaba could be described as the Mugaba business of tomorrow. “This is the change we want to see and I truly believe that they will be brilliant. They will be problem solvers which are where 60% of any top business executives time is spent in any organisation,” he said and added that what they had today was a “super team of trainees”. The practical skill which has been transferred to the trainees over the past year was priceless, real and a reinforced concrete foundation for tourism. “I am sure if we are to all be honest – government, CPA and the community will agree that this is what we wanted to achieve,” he said.

Van Eyssen added that the goal of the training process which he described as “hard in the beginning”, was the correct way in terms of selection and achieving top business youth with backbone, persistence, resilience and staying power in a competitive tourism venture of this nature.

“The dreams for these trainees are endless and we would like to see the Big 5 one day on the farm,” Mabelane said. During the ceremony Kenneth Mhlongo, a well-respected motivational speaker, encouraged trainees not to underestimate their mind power and the importance of accepting responsibility for their own lives.