Award winning entrepreneur launches new B&B

WHEN Busi Malanda exhibited at the Tourism Indaba trade show in Durban last year, she told delegates all about her “home away from home” guest house.

Now, she has another brand new tourism business to talk about.

Malanda has been the proud owner of the Lala Khona Lodge in the small village of Umzimkhulu, a two-hour drive from Durban, since 2011 and she has now added a second hospitality business to her portfolio: she has just bought a beautiful sea-facing bed and breakfast business a kilometre from the main entrance to Margate, the popular holiday resort on the Lower South Coast.

“It is very exciting,” she said as renovations were being made to her new seven-bedroom Lala Khona B&B Margate, which will be completed in time for her to move into towards the end of May.

“The B&B is really going to boost my business,” she predicted.

This will be the third year that she has exhibited at Indaba on the Tourism KwaZulu-Natal exhibition stand.

“It is very good exposure and a showcase for your business – and you do get future clients,” said Malanda.

Her three-star lodge boasts 20 bedrooms and is “highly recommended” by the Automobile Association of South Africa.

It has also won a coveted provincial South Africa Tourism Lilizela Award.

Malanda is no stranger to accolades and within a year of opening La Khona (it means sleep there), the go-ahead ambitious businesswoman took a top national Department of Trade and Industry award for women entrepreneurs.

Malanda received valuable hospitality training from the National Department of Tourism’s programme, Tourism Enterprise Partnership (TEP), and she has also benefitted from training from the provincial Department of Economic Development, Tourism and Environmental Affairs.

Her TEP mentor was Nombeko Dlamini, a consultant and a former B&B owner, who started the TEP programme in KwaZulu-Natal and who has praised the hands-on Malanda for being a “business woman through and through”.

Always quick to learn, the lessons that Malanda learned in the early days have stayed with her and as a result, the décor in the Lala Khona Lodge is appealing, impactful and elegant.

She was already a trained chef when she bought the Lala Khona Lodge and has passed on her knowledge and culinary skills to her staff.

“I am going to be spending four days at the new B&B Margate and three days in Umzimkhulu,” she said.

To get in touch, contact Malanda on tel: 060 4179 615 or 082 445 6136 and via e-mail on busimalanda3@gmail.com and check out the website on www.lalakhona.co.za