From gambling for a meal, to owner of a five-star lodge

Salvatore Vuono via www.freedigitalphotos.net

"Don't get stuck in your past, create your future," she says. "I want to share my success with other people and break the generational curse of poverty - not in my time, not again."

Sanderson grew up in Barberton, Mpumulanga. Her unmarried mother abandoned her and her three siblings when she was seven years old. Her oldest brother, who was eight at the time, tried to provide for the children by gambling.

"When he won, we would have a decent meal, pap and morogo," she says. "When he lost, he caught rodents and that would be our meal - it was better than nothing."

An elderly neighbour came to the starving children's rescue. She arranged for Sanderson to wash clothes for a wage, which occasionally helped to put food in the pot. Eventually, a relative came to fetch the children.

"Staying with relatives was hard; it was not the same as being raised by a mother, we had to work in other people's houses," she says.

But the children were also sent to school - a 10km walk there and back every day. Despite falling pregnant twice during her high school years, Sanderson was determined to finish matric.

With no experience and qualifications, but brimming with passion, she called the local community radio station she loved listening to for a job after she finished her schooling. The station was recruiting, but she didn't make the cut.

However, "with the grace of God the woman they selected got a job offer somewhere else and that is how I got the position", Sanderson says.

She was required to travel in and around Barberton to get stories for the radio station. A local taxi association helped her out with free transport every now and then. "In 2000 I was collecting stories, writing them and reading them on a news slot. I earned R250 a month."

Sanderson then applied for a job at the SABC and was turned down a few times until Hosea Jiyane, SABC regional manager in Mpumalanga, offered her a one-month contract as a producer and presenter.

But two weeks before she started her new job, she suffered a mild stroke that affected her facial muscles. The SABC was sympathetic, and delayed her appointment until she completed her therapy.

She went on to win numerous awards while she worked at the state broadcaster.

"I'm here today because somebody gave me a chance," Sanderson says.

Her move into the hospitality sector came after she met her husband, Lloyd Sambo, an unemployed chemical engineer at the time and an aspiring entrepreneur.

After they got married they bought 6ha of land in Mpumalanga with no idea how they could make an income from it. They discovered a neighbour was selling his 4ha and decided to buy it as well. The neighbouring property had three chalets, and that's where the idea to start a guest lodge emerged.

Sanderson soon realised she needed help to make her lodge a success and hired Tracey Chambers as GM and Helen Roots as chef.

"It was not a cheap exercise, we parted with a lot of money to make the dream possible," she says.

They built another three chalets and hired Cape Town-based Urban Spaces to design the interiors. A five-star venue was added, which hosts weddings, conferences and other activities such as poetry readings and fashion shows.

Last year Casambo Exclusive Guest Lodge won Tsogo Sun's guesthouse of the year award, designed to help new owners of guesthouses by providing them with business skills training and other knowledge needed to run a successful hospitality enterprise.

Casambo's individually decorated chalets are nestled between rocky outcrops and breathtaking landscapes. They all have modern, fully fitted kitchens with a lounge and private balcony. The villa has four bedrooms and the conveniences of a luxury home including a pool table, big-screen TV and swimming pool.

Sanderson is planning to open a spa and is in talks to make her guest lodge a franchise operation in SA and neighbouring countries. She has already been receiving visitors from Mozambique, Swaziland, Malawi and elsewhere.

Source: Business Day