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PORT Elizabeth based tourism group Mantis Collection has announced a bold expansion into West Africa with a landmark, multi-million US dollar deal signed in PE yesterday (July 25 2011) to roll out a sumptuous suite of boutique hotels in Nigeria. Mantis founder Adrian Gardiner signed the deal at Shamwari Townhouse in Summerstrand with highly respected Nigerian businessman Nze Chidi Duru, who is the chairman of Abuja-based Grand Towers Plc. The Nigerian company has interests in the pension, banking, retail, communications, IT and hospitality sectors.
Grand Towers is aiming to design and build “20-plus” boutique hotels in state capitals around Nigeria. Mantis is contracted to advise its partner through this process, and will also be managing and marketing each unit, as well as doing some joint development work. The deal is structured around a 50-50 profit share.
Senior Mantis man Laurie Ward, who is due to fly out of PE next week to take up his post as COO officer of the project, said the combination of the home-grown West African Grand Towers brand and Mantis’ international flair was a winner.
“The are possibilities for rolling out the model even beyond Nigeria to elsewhere in West Africa like Gambia, Gabon and Angola.”
Duru said that while South Africa’s Protea Hotels’ group is already in Nigeria and doing well, there are no examples of the more intimate luxury “boutique” hotels, and there is significant demand for this product.
“It’s an exciting venture for us.
“We could have looked anywhere in the world for a partner, but we wanted Mantis.
“My previous dealings with South Africa has shown me that the people here know how to move in the African space. At the same time, the intellectual capital, the expertise and experience in our sectors - all this is here.”
Having studied law, corporate governance and economics in Nigeria, Spain and then at Harvard University in the US, Duru first connected with SA five years ago when he was looking for a partner to help him establish an assurance company in Nigeria. He linked up with Novare in Cape Town and then established First Guarantee Life in Nigeria.
Since then he has been on regular visits not least to link up with Shoprite, which is now the anchor tenant in Grand Tower’s shopping mall development in Abuja. The mall is only the second in a country of 160-million people and there is potential for many more, he said.
The project with Mantis is meanwhile underway with the first boutique hotel due to be completed in December, at a cost of about R25-million. The intention is that they will all be 5-star affairs but with the emphasis on intimacy and also the environmental conservation ethic that Mantis has pioneered in SA and which it has shaped or helped shape in 40-odd tourism enterprises around the world from Rwanda to Antarctica. Both the construction and management of the new Grand Towers/ Mantis hotels will be informed by green energy, water and waste management practices and eco-friendly products.
Gardiner said he had been immediately, hugely impressed by Duru’s presentation when he and his partner Frank Nweke, who is also the director of the Nigerian Economic Summit Group, tracked him down in Port Alfred.
“Within a couple of hours, my perception of Nigeria had totally changed.
“Things are going to be a bit different as all almost all our guests, to start with at least, will be from the business and government sectors, as opposed to leisure tourists. But we have already set up a team there and we are getting to work to establish best practice.”
Gardiner, 68, said Mantis’ expansion into Africa with ventures now in Nigeria, Zambia, Mozambique and Rwanda was partly personal.
“I was born in Zambia and grew up in Zimbabwe so I suppose in this last chapter of my life I do have a wish to take the Mantis model, which we have created down here, back to where I come from.”
However, having spent so much of his time visiting exotic locations all over the world either alone or with his wife Shirelyanne, “there is always a nagging wish to get back home to PE, he said.
“It’s to do with the accessibility of everything, and the cleanliness. It’s unique.”
SEVEN media personalities took the plunge yesterday (March 28 2012) in honour of Themba the Kariega rhino who died at the weekend, after a vicious poacher assault a month ago. Aided by Skydive PE, they screwed up their courage and jumped out of an aeroplane 3kms above Uitenhage Aerodrome.
Call for bay to be SA's first green cityNELSON Mandela Bay can become South Africa’s first “transition city”, leading from the front to create a brave new model built around low carbon emissions, local economic development and “sustainable livelihoods”. That’s the view of political and social development activist Dr Janet Cherry, who is a lecturer at NMMU and also a leading member of Transition Network PE, one of the organisations that attended the Cop17 climate change summit in Durban in December, and which participated in the Cop17 Feedback Session at city hall last week.
Themba's struggle for life recountedFOLLOWING the death of Themba, veterinarian Dr William Fowlds struggled to hold back tears yesterday as he told 150 schoolboys from Grahamstown's St Andrew's Preparatory how the severely mutilated rhino - “who fought so bravely” to survive - collapsed and drowned in a rock pool at Kariega Game Reserve.
45 minutes of terrorA TRAUMATISED survivor of Sunday's beach tragedy has told how he battled the choppy waters at Port Elizabeth's Bluewater Bay Beach for 45 minutes in a desperate effort to live, as the bodies of two of his rugby teammates floated beside him.
Chinese pair held after mussel bustTWO Chinese nationals have been arrested and a huge haul of 4611 mussels have been seized in a joint bust by department of fisheries officials and the PE flying squad. The bust took place yesterday (March 26 2012) afternoon in the dolosse area opposite North End prison. Mussels are plentiful from east of the harbour all the way to the New Brighton pier.
Saving the Cape parrotA COMMUNITY project in a mountain village is helping to create jobs at the same time as protecting a rare forest bird. The R1.6-million Cata Eco-Tourism Development Project was established through an agreement between the EU and the office of the premier in the Eastern Cape, to help the people of Cata, a village near Keiskammehoek, at the foot of the Amatola Mountains.
BBC film on hitman, husbandTHE family of slain bride Anni Dewani is anxiously awaiting the screening of a documentary that is promising to reveal the dealings of her husband and a hired hitman days after her execution-style murder.
Salaries swallow up education budgetEDUCATION stakeholders in the Eastern Cape have slammed the provincial Education Department's budget for catering more to the financial needs of its staff than the department's core business - the pupils.
Zille leads PE protestSHOUTING “Hamba Sadtu hamba”, DA leader Helen Zille led 2000 Port Elizabeth parents and pupils in a protest march yesterday against the South African Democratic Teachers' Union, which she accused of being more worried about the rights of teachers than pupils.
Stroke victim, wife beaten and robbedA BED-RIDDEN 81-year-old Summerstrand man and his wife were beaten up and kicked by four robbers, who also threatened to throw boiling water over them if they did not reveal where the safe key was.
Major boost for EC auto industryIN a milestone for the growth of the Eastern Cape's automotive industry, which employs more than 40000 workers, the government has launched an initiative aimed at expanding the sector even further.
Empty promises plague Eastern CapeON the eve of Human Rights Day, Eastern Cape residents have little to celebrate as the province still lags far behind the rest of the country with regard to service delivery in four key areas: water, electricity, sanitation and waste removal. In a recently released study done in 2009 - the latest to date - the province scored well below the national average on these.
View moreWHY did DJ Gareth Cliff get such a small fine and not lose his licence (“Gareth Cliff pays R10000 for speeding at 182km/h”, March 16)? The same applies to other high profile speedsters like the MP in the Free State.
Well done on co-operationSUCCESS and sense prevail at last! There are so many of us who are thrilled to see that all “other” political parties are seeing sense at last, and standing together on the “secrecy bill”. Well done!
Another attack at festering ArlingtonANOTHER knife attack has occurred at Arlington Waste Disposal Site. The attack, which took place on Saturday afternoon, comes amid calls by the DA for an investigation into the chaotic state of the site and questionable swopping of contractors.
Schoenies otter takes fishing lessonsIT’S one of the iconic wild animals of the metro’s open spaces, but it’s not often seen - certainly not clambering onto the rocks right under your feet. But that was the experience of fishing buddies Gavin Curtis and Stuart Duckenfield who were trying their luck with light tackle and pilchards at Schoenies yesterday (August 10 2011).
Cause and effect of climate change explainedSO HOW to communicate the complexity and magnitude of climate change to youngsters from a little school in Zwide? The kids, in grades six and seven at Mzimhlophe Primary School, were given the answer to this question during their visit to the SA Marine Rehabilitation and Education Centre (Samrec) yesterday (August 03 2011).
R1.5-million farming venture will fit Eastern Cape to a teaTHE Eastern Cape government has set aside R1.5-million to kick-start an expanded honeybush tea industry that could be ramped up to produce a turnover of R100-million a year and hundreds of new jobs. The good news follows on the results that have emerged from a study of the honeybush industry, commissioned by the Coega Development Corporation (CDC) on behalf of the provincial economic development and environmental affairs department.
Snowed-in guards airlifted to safetyNINETEEN stock-theft guards stationed on the top of the Drakensberg have been plucked to safety as heavy snow presses in on their lonely outposts. The guards are housed alone or in pairs in 10 shipping containers, at key points along the Lesotho border with the north-eastern Eastern Cape, in the Rhodes area.
Algoa Bay the best monitored in all of AfricaALGOA Bay is now “the best monitored bay in Africa” with millions of rands worth of equipment installed below the surface measuring a wide range of environmental conditions. That was the proud revelation yesterday (July 28 2011) from SA Environmental Observation Network (Saeon) co-ordinator Shaun Deyzel, who was speaking at a marine science symposium hosted by SA National Parks, at the Addo Elephant National Parks.
Surf event sets greening benchmarkBILLABONG Pro J-Bay is setting a benchmark for international surfing contests with a comprehensive programme to protect the local environment and combat global climate change.
Karoo farmers take their fracking probe to Jo'burg oil summitA SMALL Karoo farmers’ association is so concerned about fracking, and damning new evidence out of the US, it is funding the R10000 bill demanded for a four-day oil and gas conference in Johannesburg, to allow one of its members to attend.
Swell job for man with decades of experienceWITH the small waves prevailing yesterday (Sunday July 17 2011) for the Billabong Pro J-Bay, all surfing mojos are focused on the second week of the contest and the swell that, it is hoped, will still set things on fire. The man with un-paralleled expertise in this department is contest director Eric Stedman, 54, who has been scanning synoptic charts, fiddling with barometers and assessing wind direction since he was a grommit back in East London in the 1960s. It also helps that he began surfing Jeffreys Bay 43 years ago.
New official whale watching operator launch in the bayALGOA Bay’s first boat-based boat-based whale-watching operation in a decade has been officially launched - and already some exciting sightings are being reported. Lloyd Edwards of Raggy Charters, the company awarded the boat-based whale watching (BBWW) license for Algoa Bay, said yesterday (July 14 2011) he spotted the cow and calf pair of southern right whales off Algorax earlier this week.
Unique source of Bay waterHOW many cities in the world can say they get their water from a World Heritage Site? Very few, I bet. Yet, that’s the case with Port Elizabeth and the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality and in fact the Gamtoos River Valley vege farmers.
Super surf contest starts at J-BayTHE latest edition of one of the great global surfing contests, built around an iconic right-hand point break, was launched in Jeffreys Bay last night (Wednesday July 14 2011).
Bayworld raggies returned to the oceanTHE biggest baddest pair from Bayworld’s de-commissioned aquarium, two bulky raggedtooth sharks, were released yesterday (July 26 2011) back into the sea. It was a sad day for the oceanarium, where they have lived for nearly two decades, inspiring awe in hundreds of thousands of visitors - but it is good news for the species, as the pair are now part of a research project aimed at securing our waters as one of the few safe havens in the world for raggies.
Dairy farm could close soonBUSHY Park Dairy Farm, a flagship “proudly Port Elizabeth” business and a much-loved feature of the metro for the past 20 years, is facing closure. The shock news was confirmed yesterday (June 21 2011) by managing trustee Puffer Hartzenberg, who was responding to unconfirmed reports about the matter.
Unique study of great whitesA UNIQUE study into the abundance, distribution and movement of great white sharks in Algoa Bay, sponsored by the metro, has been launched. There has never been a fatal shark attack in Algoa Bay, but the metro has committed the R800000 grant as a pro-active step, taken in line with their marketing of Port Elizabeth as “the watersports’ capital of Africa”, researcher Dr Matt Dicken explained yesterday (June 21 2011).
Refurbished Skead book publishedA NEW book aimed at celebrating our natural heritage and guiding sound future conservation policy has been published in Port Elizabeth. Historical Incidence of the Larger Land Mammals in the Broader Western and Northern Cape (including the Eastern Cape as far east as Sundays River) is a complete re-furbishment - with summaries, maps, illustrations and two new chapters - of the original work of the same name by legendary naturalist Dr Jack Skead, who died in 2006.
Co-op sponsors two farmers on US missionTWO Karoo farmers have flown out of PE on a ground-breaking mission to the US, to get the low-down on fracking, in the country where it all began.
Link Refit to electric cars proposalIF WE CAN link Refit with electrical motorcars - then we could really be onto something. Speaking to The Herald yesterday (June 14 2011), department of environmental affairs deputy-director general for climate change, Peter Lukey, said the scheduled launch this month of South Africa’s Renewable Energy Feed-In Tariff (Refit), will likely lead to significant positive change.
Exciting reforestation project underway in TranskeiAN UNUSUAL re-forestation and carbon sequestration project is underway in the heart of the old Transkei, where savage erosion is a common feature. The R7600000 project is being run as a partnership between the Congress of Traditional Leaders’ of South Africa (Contralesa), the national department of environmental affairs and a Johannesburg-based company called Carbon Worx.
Green electricity programme set to launch this monthGOVERNMENT will this month launch the long-awaited Refit programme that will make funding available to pay private energy entrepreneurs who will generate their own green electricity and sell it to the grid.
EC investment boost to counter climate changeEASTERN Cape economic environment MEC Mcebisi Jonas yesterday announced significant new green economy investment to boost green economy skills in the province.
Branch recalls fascinating careerFOR world-renowned reptile and amphibian expert Dr Bill Branch, who retired this week from Bayworld after 32 years employment there - it all began in 1969, on the shores of a lake in East Africa.
EC leads climate change battleTHE Eastern Cape government has declared its intention to lead from the front in the war against climate change, with a landmark multi-benefit project agreement signed at the Eastern Cape Climate Change Conference in East London yesterday (June 08 2011).
Climate change conferenceEVERYONE change - a milestone Eastern Cape climate change conference, featuring senior political leaders and climate change experts, is set to start in East London today (Wednesday May 8). The Eastern Cape Climate Change Conference will focus on the strategy document that has been prepared by local role-players, and will look towards the UN’s Cop17 summit, the international climate change indaba in Durban in December
'Plenty of power for smelter,' says CDCBLACK-out fears notwithstanding, there is more than enough electricity for the megawatt-hungry Coega manganese smelter, according to the Coega Development Corporation (CDC). CDC communications’ chief Senzeni Ndebele was responding this week to concerns expressed about the power demands of the smelter and how this will affect Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality residents and existing businesses.
Motherwell eco-schools big recipientsTWO Motherwell “eco-schools” were the recipients this week of tens of thousands of rands worth of equipment and furniture to help them learn better. The 26 maths and reading software packages, 100 desks and 200 chairs were donated by ABB after the power and automation giant participated last year in a Wessa eco-schools’ workshop in PE.
Pollution plume off the beachfront raises concernsA STRANGE-looking plume of discoloured water has been appearing sporadically in the bay between Shark Rock Pier and Humewood Beach, resulting in a number of calls from concerned residents, Following an initial report on May 20 by Humewood resident Elize Pretorius, and then disappearing for several days, it reappeared again this week, prompting further calls.
Put the environment on agenda of new councils Concerns over Ngqura oil leak 'unfounded'CONCERNS have been raised that the oil and gas exploration rig in Port of Ngqura could be leaking oil into the bay. Both the Norwegian company that owns the ultra-deepwater drilling rig and the harbour authorities have rejected as unfounded the concerns raised by environmental group Ocean Messengers.
Ball of fire not the beginning of the end.Was it a bird? Was it a plane? Was it a comet hurtling to Earth in delayed fulfillment of Harold Campling’s doomsday prophesy? Well, no. In fact, it was the International Space Station (ISS) and space shuttle Endeavour, catching the last rays of the setting sun.
Ngqura a fish magnetTHE Port of Ngqura has become an extraordinary magnet for marine life, and could point the way to an important new role for harbours, according to Bayworld marine biologist and shark specialist Dr Matt Dicken.
Stately emperor pays family a flying visitTHERE are moths and there are moths - and then there is the pine tree emperor, one of the giants of the insect world. Gorgeous yellow in colour and “easily the size of a man’s hand”, one of these moths swooped into a Seaview home the other night.
Endangered forest clearing probedA SWATHE of critically endangered forest and new generation legislation formulated to combat climate change are at the centre of a confrontation in Deer Park. The forestry department has slammed as “reckless and malicious” the clearing of the area, which is over 100m long by on average 4m wide.
Male in search of good life turns up at beachfrontHE WAS a prickly customer - but in the end he came quietly. It was Patrick Mange, the cleaner and gardener at beachfront flatblock Bandle, next to the Beach Hotel, who found him.
EC operators performs strongly at IndabaTHE Eastern Cape has fared well at the Indaba tourism conference and expo in Durban, taking gold in two different categories in the main Welcome awards and only just falling short in the Eteya emerging tourism operators’ awards. The Welcome Awards winners are both from PE and are both family-owned businesses: the Plantation, the wedding, functions’ and accommodation venue on the Sardinia Bay road, and Economic Cars and Bakkies, the 20-year-old Walmer-based car rental firm.
NMMU microscope a global break-throughNMMU has been catapulted into the forefront of nanoscience research with the arrival of a state-of-the-art custom-built microscope from Japan. The high resolution transmission electron microscope (HRTEM) is the first of its kind that has been sold commercially outside of Japan and the last of a suite of four electron microscopes, costing a total R90-million, that have arrived in the past week from Tokyo manufacturer JEOL and a second manufacturer in The Netherlands.
'Port guards like the Stasi'FOREIGN tourists yesterday compared guards at the Port Elizabeth Harbour to the dreaded Stazi security police of East Germany, following an incident in which their driver was manhandled, forcibly detained and then bundled off to Humewood Police Station. The incident happened yesterday morning as the tourists, a group of five Russians and a Belgian, were about to enter the harbour at its southern entrance, headed for a day diving excursion in Algoa Bay with local dive company Expert-Tours.
Dad's call following son's deathSIMON Swart started drugging in his early teens and he had been through 15 rehabilitation centres before he died, alone in his room in a backpacker lodge in Central, a fortnight ago. But there was much more to this young man.
How to rejuvenate Baakens River ValleyI WAS chatting to permaculture activist and leading member of Transition Network PE Naomi Suzane the other day, and she came with a great idea of how to secure, rejuvenate and celebrate the Baakens Valley. We kicked her idea around, and this is how it turned out.
Nuclear moratorium callTHE concern group challenging the Thyspunt nuclear reactor has called on government to place a moratorium on all nuclear development in South Africa until the full extent of the Fukushima disaster is known. The call by the Thyspunt Alliance - a broad coalition of residential, cultural, environmental, tourism, fisheries, business and surfing interests in the Oyster Bay, St Francis, Humansdorp and Jeffrey’s Bay area - co-incides with the 25th anniversary of Chernobyl, the historic nuclear melt-down in Ukraine.
Major show jumping event scheduled for PEPORT Elizabeth has been named as a host city for a world show-jumping championship qualifier event, sparking great excitement in the show-jumping fraternity, and the promise of an energising mid-Winter injection of tourist revenue. The event will be attracting the country’s top jumpers, so it is being celebrated in horsey circles - but it is much more than that, event co-ordinator Tanya Radke said yesterday.
Oceanarium seals readied for departureHOW do you transport eight seals to Pretoria? That’s the preoccupation right now of Bayworld’s oceanarium team, as the relocation of their animals moves ahead.
Chumming fines co-incide with issuing of whale permitNELSON Mandela Bay Municipality has issued four fines to marine tourism operator Lloyd Edwards related to the controversial chumming incident off Humewood Beach last month. The issuing of the fines at the Port Elizabeth beach office on Friday co-incides with the issuing this week of the long-awaited boat-based whale watching (BBWW) license for Algoa Bay - to Edwards.
Get out the Karoo, farmers tell ShellANGRY residents of the Middleburg area have called for Shell to “get out the Karoo” after the company failed to guarantee the security of their water if fracking goes ahead. Addressing Shell representatives at a hall in Middelburg’s Grootfontein Agricultural College in a hall packed with farmers in T-shirts saying “Don’t Frack with our Karoo,” members of the audience asked repeatedly if the multi-national could “guarantee no risk to our water”.
Nieu Bethesda farmers count flood costsIT COULD take some farmers in Nieu Bethesda a decade to get back to where they were before the flood that hit them Saturday. That’s the word from the mountainous catchment area north of Graaff-Reinet, where well over 100mm of rain fell in 24 hours, flooding the Gats River and all its tributaries, flattening stock fences, stripping roads to bedrock and bursting farm dams.
........they could not find the Galaxy syrup in the whole SA..........
mcstrange 29 March 2012 5:34 amit is too late already. the methane is being released in vast quantities from the arctic as I write this, the final forcing leading to irreversible change. Let's enjoy PE while we can. ...
mcstrange 29 March 2012 5:31 amErm, excuse me but why exactly would a municipal employee need a Galaxy tablet??? That is a waste of my ratepayers money. I'd like one but don't need one. Frivolous expenditure. ...
dokhotelo 28 March 2012 9:37 pm......as for the remaining ANC voters who are not well connected in the largest organized crime syndicate in power , they are the real slaves of the ANC lies, deceit and obscene corruption, but choose...
dokhotelo 28 March 2012 9:27 pm....Agree!!....They are not "refugees".........They are "one-way foreign exchange students"..............
thirsty 27 March 2012 5:40 pmLawrence what is stupid, confusing and nauseating, if not just pathetic, is that the department of education in the Eastern Cape is under administration. Mrs Zille did not call all blacks living in th...
mastermindPE 27 March 2012 1:33 pmWhat a load of codswallop !!!!! The truth hurts amongst the eyes hey??? Your Black South Africans are flocking to the Western Cape in droves in search of a better life instead of voting the ANC=pf Thu...
royboy 22 March 2012 11:00 amIt is about time that the media started showing pics of these thugs to name and shame,then we can see what these hyenas look like so we can recognise them if they are released....
moladi 20 March 2012 8:22 pmFor more information on award winning moladi construction technologies - visit moladi.net...
royboy 19 March 2012 3:19 pmWell it may be that the USA is able to assist and give solutions to the poaching problem....but the ANC will probably go down in history as allowing the rhino to go extinct on their watch......