Born in Cegcuana location, Ndabakazi in Butterworth, in a family of four girls, being the first born. Mrs Pumeza Giwu did her lower grades in Cegcuana junior secondary school and matriculated at Jongabantu senior secondary school in Nqamakwe.
Pumeza studied at UCT and graduated with Bachelor of Social Sciences in Social Work and further obtained Advanced Diploma in Labour Law at former Rand Afrikaans University now UJ. She later registered for Masters Degree at NMU and graduated with Masters in Development Studies. She also has a Certificate in Bed and Breakfast Management.
When did you commence with Aliwal Villa and what inspired you to go for this type of business? “Aliwal Villa Guest Lodge was formally registered as a business in April 2016, after deciding to turn our home into a guest house. The idea came from our passion of travelling as a family. Early in our marriage we began a tradition of family holidays, where once a year we travelled as a family for what we called a “family vacation”. We have since explored all the 9 provinces except Limpopo so far, where we either have a beach, adventure and wildlife holiday experience depending on the province visited. We have been to Mozambique and are planning hopefully to visit the entire SADC. This travelling experience gave us an opportunity to understand the great offerings of the hospitality industry, and more importantly equipped us with some basic but crucial knowledge of what guests expect in a hospitality industry. As we travelled and experienced different places of accommodation, we believed that we could offer something better and improve a lot of services rendered within the hospitality industry".
What are some of the challenges you have faced as a woman when you entered the hospitality industry? “Owning a business as women has been a great challenging experience. It is of great experience to realize that most guests assume that I am an employee in the Guest House. Upon enquiring about the ownership of the guest house, I inform them I am the owner and an employee. Some guests find it difficult to believe because the majority of guest houses in the industry are white owned”.
"Our country is trying by all means to empower women entrepreneurs, all policies are in place, but implementation of these policies is always a challenge. The policies do not address the real challenges of small businesses on the ground. Requirements to get funding are not small business friendly and rules are rigid. For instance, some documents needed for particular funding are government and municipal regulated, and entirely rely on political decisions. A document will rely on the approval of the council, in other municipalities the council does not sit because of the political turmoil. This results in small businesses losing a potential funding due to not submitting all the required documents within the specified requested time frames”.
What makes your place stand out from those are available in your area? “Aliwal Villa provides more than accommodation. We are selling a unique guest house experience, that is personalized according to each guest’s needs. We are tourism 3 star graded establishment, and our services always exceed customer expectations, as we implement what is expected of us by the rules of the Industry”.
Do you think our people understands enough about the hospitality industry? And, please support your statement. “People do not understand enough about the hospitality industry. Most people think that it is about accommodation or finding or providing just a place to sleep. Hospitality industry entails a lot of services more than just a bed”.
Lastly, what can people expect in your facilities? “Guests who book with us are not experiencing any load-shedding, as we are on solar energy. We also have a borehole on site, as a result our guests have uninterrupted water supply all the time. Our town Maletswai (formerly known as Aliwal North) is a very small town on the on the banks of the Orange River, bordering the Free State province. Travelers underestimate the hospitality of small towns compared to big cities. Once they stay at Aliwal Villa Guest Lodge, they realize that they find a treasure equivalent or more than the hospitality in big cities".