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Learning, empowering and growing as a team

Erwin Phillip Basson, popularly known as Pakka by the Gondwana family, has been an employee at Gondwana for 25 years. Basson started his long and exciting journey with Gondwana as a casual worker at the Kalahari Anib lodge in 2008. Basson filled a number of roles at Anib before he moved to Namushasha in 2018 where he took up the position of lodge manager. “At Namushasha it’s about learning every day, making the place beautiful and sharing knowledge with the team,” he says.

Always eager to learn

Since Basson started at Gondwana he has been known for being eager and keen to jump in, lead and lend a helping hand where needed. During his early days as a casual worker at Anib, whenever Basson was done with his day’s work sanding or varnishing, he would always help feed the horses and clean the stables out. When his casual contract came to an end, he joined the permanent team as a general worker and gardener. Always eager to learn more, Basson would borrow the guides’ books after hours to learn more about the bird and animal life at the lodge and he would use this material to share information with guest during their visits. Basson would also often help out at the bar and as he picked up experience, the managers asked him to fill in as relief and when a position became available, he became a barman, and head barman in 2014.

Basson kept on climbing the ladder and after being promoted to head barman he was promoted to floor manager and then to assistant lodge manager, overseeing maintenance, guiding and the garden.

Reaping rewards

Basson was taken by surprise in 2017 when he was told that he had been appointed lodge manager in the Zambezi Region and that he would need to be ready to move the following year. Born in Stampriet and growing up in Omaruru, he had yet to experience the lush beauty of north-eastern Namibia. When he moved to Namushasha River Lodge in 2018, he entered a new world, a completely different natural environment to the one he was used to in the south. Basson describes his time in the Zambezi region as one of a kind. “It has to be respected and enjoyed at the same time,” he says. Besides the spectacular environment and its abundance of birds and wildlife, a highlight for him is working with the Mashi conservancy, the induna and the Village Development Community.

Over the years, Basson has been on several training courses at Gondwana’s training academy at the Kalahari Farmhouse in Stampriet, improving his skills in hospitality, service excellence and leadership. These culminated in the Go4Gold programme at Moonraker Adventure Camp in 2019 for senior management. He appreciates that Gondwana gives one the tools to move forward, encouraging one to grow as a person and to bring your knowledge to the workplace to share with your colleagues.

Basson says that Gondwana is part of his DNA. He acknowledges and appreciates that the company does not think only of the present but it also thinks about the environment for the future. This wisdom he holds closely to his heart, as he does all his work. The knowledge he has garnered over his thirteen years with Gondwana not only enabled him to grow as a human being but also to empower his team.