Providing an excellent service to our clients
Management Team
Since 2005 the Themba Trust has increasingly invested in the development of skills among the general staff employed by the organisation from the local community. This investment in training has now paid off: with three exceptions, the Themba Management Team now consists of a majority of members who are from Dirkiesdorp itself.
  
Photos: Senior Management Team Members from left to right - Nico den Oudsten (CEO); Pastor Nkosinathi Biyela (Head: Christian Leadership Programme); Ingrid Niebuhr (Community & Hospitality Services)
Photos: Unit Managers from left to right - Peter Nhlabathi (Maintenance & Security), Isaac Madonsela (Christian Leadership), Ntombi Shandu (Accommodation), Mdu Mntungwa (Asset Management), Zandile Nkumane (Education Services), Nokukhanya Shabalala (Community Services). Lynette Biyela's photo (Food Services) will be added at a later stage.
     
Employees
The Themba Trust has between 60-70 full-time employees, with numbers varying based on need and natural attrition. About 30% of these employees work on a 'shift' basis, in order to provide 24/7 care to our boarding students. Since much of the work is low-skilled labour, salaries are in general not very high, while management team members are paid market-related salaries in order to retain them. However, the Themba Trust is striving to increase the capacity, and thereby the productivity, of all its staff members, in order to justify regular salary increases and thereby give the local micro-economy a boost. The majority of people working at Themba are bread-winners and therefore the Themba Trust tries to retain staff even under uncertain economic circumstances, which are the result of the organisation's relative donor-dependency.
BEE & Gender Representation
The large majority of Themba employees are black, with men and women more or less equally represented. Only two Themba employees are white.
Specialist involvement
From time to time the Themba Trust contracts in specialists in various fields, in order to move the organisation forward. Some of the specialist consultants that have been contracted in during the past three years are for market research related to the planned private school, architects, project managers, environmental specialists, financial and bookkeeping specialists, business development specialists and researchers to conduct research relevant to the organisation's work. Some of the specialists work on a voluntary basis, but most are paid market-related fees.
Client focus and self-sustainability
Since 2010 the Themba Trust has committed itself to a more business-like approach to its work in a spirit of social entrepreneurship, both in terms of improving its client service, as well as in terms of embarking on concerted efforts to achieve financial self-sustainability over the next 5-10 year period.
 
Photos: Themba's Business Managers are - Nsizwa Tshabangu (Agribusiness); and Sipho Nkosi (Wood furniture production).
"Work hard, and you will be a leader; be lazy, and you will end up a slave." - Proverbs 12.24 | 