Gondwana employees become shareholders

Staff reporter – All 821 employees of Gondwana Collection became shareholders of the group on 1 November.

This milestone is part of the recent restructuring of the Gondwana Group with Gondwana Holding Limited now acting as the group’s holding company.

The number of shares issued to staff members is loyalty-based, with long-serving members allocated a larger quantity of shares according to the years worked. The staff incentive share-scheme elevates Gondwana employees from staff members and members of the Gondwana family to co-owners, raising the team to new and greater heights, says Gys Joubert, managing director of Gondwana Collection.

“Gondwana has always been a company that lives its values. Values of caring for our country, caring for our communities, caring for our staff members and caring for our environment,” he says.

He reminded staff that “being part of Gondwana carries a responsibility to leave everything in better condition than when you found it. This underlying spirit of sustainability entails that we look after what we have not as owners, but as custodians for the next generation of Namibians – for our children and their children.”

From its humble beginnings in the late 1990s - when a farm was bought on the eastern side of the Fish River Canyon and the first lodge opened its doors - Gondwana has endeavoured to incorporate conservation and social responsibility into its ethos, with its motto being: “You can only be successful if you make others successful.”