Kuzuko believes in treating all its employees with dignity and respect.

We have set new standards in staff housing, wages, working conditions,
insurance and share ownership through a Workers Trust. We are committed to the training, up skilling and personal development of our staff. Added to this, Kuzuko has partnered with Umzi Wethu, a pioneering programme set up by the Wilderness foundation, whereby young adults from broken backgrounds are selected for an eighteen-month course for ecotourism jobs.

Kuzuko has employed some of these young people and it has been a pleasure to watch them grow is confidence and experience as they develop their careers in the hospitality industry. The lodge and the property on which it is built is a partnership between South African National Parks and a consortium of local and international business executives headed up by Dr Kim Tan, a biochemist and industrialist based in the UK. The Disability Empowerment Concerns Trust holds a 24% share and the Workers Trust 8%Seeking to have a positive impact on the communities and the area, the consortium chose to develop the lodge on land which, through its remote location and semi-arid conditions, offers few farming opportunities in a district where unemployment is high. However, while it is unsuitable for farming, the land has great value as a nature reserve where the vegetation can be rehabilitated and endemic wildlife reintroduced. The lodge is committed to leaving an ecologically viable and community friendly footprint.

This commitment has been demonstrated in a number of projects the lodge has undertaken. These include organising for a nursing sister to visit the area once a month to ensure everyone has access to health care. Kuzuko also ensures that all children of school going age within the community attend school. The lodge is a proud member of the Heritage Programme.The lodge has also partnered with Umziwethu, a Port Elizabeth based project which seeks to take people from disadvantaged backgrounds and train them for jobs in the hospitality industry. Once trained, Umziwethu places its students with its partners in the tourism industry. The ethos of Kuzuko “Place of Glory” seeks to make a positive economic contribution to the community in which it operates making this an ideal alliance which has seen Kuzuko employ chefs, waiters and field guides trained by Umzi Wethu.