Former communication manager in the office of former MpumalangaPremier Mathews Phosa has been elected the new President of a bodythat promotes tourism in Mpumalanga.
Board members of the Chamber of Business and Tourism in the eHlanzeniregion last week elected Oupa Pilane as the body’s new regionalPresident, taking over from Dr Norah Fakude.
Pilane will this week visit and be introduced to staff members in allof the body’s offices in eHlanzeni.
The body is called Kruger Loweveld Chamber of Business and Tourism orKLCBT and attempts to promote tourism and investment in the tourismfield .
According to its website, their “main mandate is to promote theeHlanzeni region as a tourism and investment destination, to provide adiverse suite of networking and marketing for our members, and torepresent and speak on behalf of the business and tourism community inthe area”.
Pilane (47), a businessman himself and owner of guesthouses aroundMbombela, said the KLCBT’s vision is to create a network in order toseek to have the kind of entrepreneurs who can be activists in ourcommunities and change the lives of the poor for the better.
“We need activist entrepreneurs,” he said, “people who can becomebusiness catalyst,” he said.
“If our members agree, I would like to initiate a campaign called’Strength in Colour’ which sees business leaders of all races workingtogether to drive industrialisation and integration for sustainablebusinesses,” Pilane said.
Pilane holds a master’s degree in Public Development.
In 2001, hecaused controversy after he fired gun-shots outside the Medi-ClinicHospital in Mbombela during a scuffle with two white men who allegedlytold him to go tell former President Thabo Mbeki to build a hospitalfor Africans.
(edited by ZK)
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