The Tourism Business Council of South Africa (TBCSA) has recently elected CEO of Motsamayi Tourism, Jerry Mabena, as its new Chairman of the Board.

Mabena takes over the reins from Blacky Komani who served two terms in the position. Komani steered the industry through the difficult period of the COVID-19 pandemic, fostering greater collaboration between the private and public sectors.

Mabena will be deputised by Lindelwa Isabelle.

Both Mabena and Isabelle bring a wealth of experience in the tourism industry having held key positions in the sector. They will help the association achieve its strategic objectives over the next two years.

CEO of the TBCSA, Tshifhiwa Tshivhengwa, says the new board will help guide the tourism sector toward realising its goal of boosting economic growth by maximising South Africa’s attractiveness to source markets.

New Senior Director Sales for Lufthansa

Lufthansa Group will enhance its commercial and business unit and emphasise its commitment to Africa with a higher ranked management level to be established in Johannesburg.

René Koinzack has been appointed Senior Director Sales for Southern & East Africa, Nigeria and Equatorial Guinea at Lufthansa Group Airlines.

He started his new role in December, and will steer and further develop the commercial and sales activities for all Lufthansa Group Airlines (Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines, Discover Airlines, Edelweiss, Eurowings, Lufthansa and SWISS) within his newly allocated sales region that comprises 24 countries.

These countries have been formerly steered out of Brussels together with all remaining Sub-Saharan markets. With this step, the airline group in Europe wants to get closer to its customers in these growing and dynamic African markets.

Koinzack will report to Heinrich Lange, Vice President Sales EMEA Lufthansa Group Airlines. “With appointing one of our most experienced sales managers of our company, we want to actively strengthen our position and commercial offer in this region. We build upon his valuable experience in various sales markets for him to further develop a trustful relationship, already established with our business partners and customers,” says Lange.

Koinzack was born in Cottbus, Germany. He studied Tourism Management at the University of Applied Science in Wernigerode and earned his Diploma in 2004. Immediately after his studies at university, he joined the Lufthansa Group in February 2004 in Moscow as a Marketing Manager for Russia.

In his most recent position, he was in charge as GM for Poland and Czech Republic for the Lufthansa Group out of Warsaw since 2021.

In all his sales markets, Koinzack will lead an established local sales management team for Lufthansa Group Airlines:

• Southern Africa (Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Réunion, Seychelles, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe) is steered by Matthias Lefèvre based in Johannesburg.
• East Africa (Burundi, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Somalia, South Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda) is steered by Kevin Markette based in Nairobi.
• Nigeria and Equatorial Guinea is steered by Zied Gueblaoui based in Lagos.

ATTA appoints a director

James Haigh, Head of Sales and Marketing for Lemala Camps & Lodges, has recently been appointed a director of the boards of both African Travel and Tourism Association (ATTA) and its wholly owned events subsidiary, Experience Africa Events.

With many years’ experience in the safari business, Haigh has developed strong relationships with a variety of stakeholders throughout the supply chain and will add valuable knowledge to the HQ teams to help spot potential issues quickly, allowing him to provide solutions and create strategies to ensure smooth operations and successful outcomes.

On being appointed, Haigh comments: “I am confident that with the help of the ATTA board, our members and the many industry partners who have been so very supportive of us over the years, we will continue to build ATTA and contribute to the success of the African safari industry.”

Sun City Resort continues female leadership appointments

Sun City Resort has recently appointed Votelwa Majola as its new HR Manager.

Majola, who joined the Sun International property in October reporting to the Resort GM, Brett Hoppé, is responsible for leading and managing the HR team, accountable for the strategic delivery and integration of functions and processes across the HR value chain.

“Today, 58% of our staff are women, 95% of whom are African, with many firsts with its leadership among these, including the first female gaming manager and the first female IT manager,” said Hoppé.

“Part of my role will be to ensure effective delivery of people strategy and plans to support the achievement of Sun City’s business strategy,” said Votelwa.

The role includes management of the HR Operations, Employee Relations and Learning and Development teams, Transport for the resort as well as the crèche and staff housing functions.

Majola is a seasoned Human Resources leader, with extensive experience in the global fast-moving consumer goods sector and the South African retail, banking, property and manufacturing sectors. She was previously Head of Human Capital and Acting Corporate Services Executive in the agricultural sector.