Tag Archives: Monwabisi Kalawe

WhaleTales Tourism, Food, and Wine news headlines: 28 April

WhaleTalesTourism, Food, and Wine news headlines

*   South African Rowan Gormley created online retailer Naked Wines in the UK six years ago, and has funded the expansion of his Naked Wines company into the USA and Australia too, via ‘crowdfunding‘.  Called ‘angels‘, investors pay £20 a month, and receive wines at discounted prices.   This year the company plans to invest £70 million in 145 vineyards in 13 countries.  The system is so popular that investors are ‘queuing’ to join.

*   Former suspended SAA CEO Monwabisi Kalawe, once Chairman of Cape Town Tourism, has tendered his resignation and has withdrawn his attempts to be reinstated by the airline.  He will receive a three-month salary Continue reading →

WhaleTales Tourism, Food, and Wine news headlines: 4 November

WhaleTalesTourism, Food, and Wine news headlines

*  SAA Chairman Dudu Myeni has refused to follow Public Enterprises Minister Lynne Brown’s instruction that its CEO Monwabisi Kalawe be reinstated, after having been fired last week!  Technically the Minister is not allowed to interfere with Board matters, but Minister Brown has intimated that anyone not co-operating to create stability at SAA will be fired.

*   Corné Koch has been appointed as Head of the Wesgro’s Convention Bureau, having previously worked in promoting Gauteng, and the Advertising Standards Authority.

*   Trendtalk#9 will focus on design trends, with speakers being Trevyn McGowan of Southern Guild, who curated the new Watershed at the V&A Waterfront, and John Sanei of Future Collective.   The talk will be held on 11 November at the ICIC Continue reading →

WhaleTales Tourism, Food, and Wine news headlines: 22 May

WhaleTalesTourism, Food, and Wine news headlines

*   After having focused on Cape Town earlier this week, Huffington Post has included Hermanus in an article entitled ‘5 Lesser-known African wonders you have to see’.  Whale-watching is recommended, from July – November, with twenty to thirty whales being seen in Hermanus on average per day in that period, announced by the whale crier on his kelp horn.  The other wonders are the lunar rainbow in Zambia, the South Carmine Bee-eater migration in Zambia, wildebeest calving in Tanzania, and the Fruit-bat migration in Zambia.

*   South Africa’s premium wines over £10 a bottle were praised at a blind tasting held in London on Tuesday, offering quality and value for money.  The tasting was organised by the drinks business and the Premium Independent Wineries of South Africa, a collective of 15 local wine producers, promoting premium wines costing £10 or more.  Only 4% of wines are bought at that price-point, warned Tesco’s South African wine buyer, but he praised the quality of our wines, saying that they are ‘fantastic‘.  He said that our country’s premium wines need to promote their credentials.    Local wines tasted were Ken Forrester Chenin Blanc 2000, Beaumont Hope Marguerite 2009, Journey’s End Destination Chardonnay 2012, Mulderbosch Barrel Fermented Chardonnay 2010, Radford Dale ‘Nudity’ Syrah 2013, Mullineux Syrah 2012, Mvemve Raats de Compostella 2012, Jordan Cobblers Hill, South Africa 2011, Newton Johnson Family Vineyards Pinot Noir 2012, The Drift ‘There are still mysteries’ Pinot Noir 2012, and Paul Cluver Pinot Noir 2012.

*   Italian anti-trust and competition authorities are investigating TripAdvisor for its Continue reading →

WhaleTales Tourism, Food, and Wine news headlines: 29 January

WhaleTalesTourism, Food, and Wine news headlines

*   The first ever African marketing office of SA Tourism was opened yesterday in Lagos in Nigeria, by our Minister of Tourism Marthinus van Schalkwyk.  Not only will this be good for tourism for our country, but it also aims to create greater awareness and to attract more tourists to Africa globally.

*   The Reserve Bank has increased the interest rate by 50 basis points, the first increase in five years, to curb inflation caused by the weak Rand.

*   SAA made a loss of R991 million in the 2012/2013 financial year, an improvement on its previous loss of R1,25 billion in the previous financial year.  It blames the loss on the ‘weakened rand‘, as 60% of its costs are dollar based.  It announced today that had the Rand not weakened, SAA would have made a profit!  Cost-cutting efforts have been cutting the Kigali (to Rwanda) and Buenos Aires routes.  All long-distance routes are loss-making, admitted CEO Monwabisi Kalawe, but have to be retained for strategic reasons, such as Beijing.

*   The USA has close to 8000 wineries, of which just less than half are in California, by far the  dominant wine production state.   South Africa has about one tenth of this number!

*   The 9000 participants in the Travel Weekly’s Readers’ Choice Awards voted South Africa as the best Continue reading →