The coming of an instantly recognisable international brand to Soweto seemed to be one of the most concrete embodiments yet of the revival of South Africa’s townships, for decades relegated by the apartheid government to the status of mere labour pools serving the “white” cities.
It seemed appropriate that the stylish, beautifully designed Holiday Inn should be located on Freedom Square in Kliptown, the square where, in 1955, the Congress of the People gathered to list their demands for a just, non-racial future.
Lindiwe Sangweni-Siddo remembers the intense media spotlight shone on her hotel with a smile. “It certainly helped to put us on the map,” she recalls. Lindiwe, general manager of the newly-renamed Soweto Hotel on Freedom Square, is the chief executive officer of Zatic Pty Ltd which, with partners including the Investec Group and with support from the Industrial Development Corporation, spent R30-million on the 48-room four-star hotel.
“Yes, we got a great PR platform at the time of the launch but the real hard work lies in marketing the hotel to a very focused group,” says Lindiwe, whose experience includes working for hotel groups Southern Sun and Hyatt. “We’re targeting very key markets as identified by SA Tourism. We’re not praying and spraying. Markets we’re focusing on are key markets such as France, the UK and Ireland, Netherlands and Germany. Also, we believe we have a lot to offer the African market.”
Lindiwe adds that a key selling point of the hotel –to corporates, NGOs and all levels of government – is conferencing. Literally on the hotel’s doorstep are facilities for conferences and meetings of fewer than 20 people to as many as 2,500. Big companies based elsewhere in Gauteng often look for a different experience, the chance to get away from their usual spheres, but without being too far from head office. With such businesses, the Soweto Hotel has proved particularly popular.
Lindiwe is keenly aware of positioning the hotel as an integral part of the local community. “The Soweto market’s spending power is some R10.7 billion a year but not more than 24% of that gets spent in Soweto,” she says. “We want to be the chosen venue for stokvels [communal savings schemes], churches, for weddings, funerals, big parties.” Gone are the days, says Lindiwe, when local families were all happy to sleep on the living room floor for big family events like funerals or weddings. Nowadays Sowetans are increasingly discerning, and they value having a first-class hotel in their community.
The hotel’s design was carefully briefed and, says Lindiwe, excellently executed. Stunning mosaics of struggle leaders adorn the reception, and the jazz bar is named after Rusty Bernstein, the Jewish ANC leader who was responsible for compiling the thousands of submissions received from around South Africa into the Freedom Charter. “The square is a national heritage site,” says Lindiwe, “so the political story was always going to come through [in the design] but not in an ‘Ag shame’ kind of way. Also, given the date and time of the Freedom Charter, the 1950s had to come into it,” says Lindiwe.
Lindiwe’s appreciation of the importance of heritage is reflected in her company’s name. Zatic, she says, stands for Zuka African Tourism and Investment Corporation. She explains that in isiZulu “uzuka” referred to an old “tickey” – the equivalent of five cents. Lindiwe’s great-grandfather was a successful entrepreneur who, as the family remember, always used to say that any business began with savings of every sixpence - uzuka.
In growing the Soweto Hotel, Lindiwe says, Zatic has been extremely fortunate with the partners they have identified and those which have approached the hotel, offering assistance. Among these is TEP, she says. “There are a lot of entities that want us to be successful. TEP held a conference at our hotel and out of that came an offer for us to become part of the tourism cluster. What’s lovely is that in the cluster you’re put together with like-minded projects. You’re creating a value chain, with everyone working together instead of against each other. It’s an excellent concept. We have no doubt that the cluster is going to be a great help to businesses such as ours.”