Meet the team

Jonny, our senior field guide, is arguably the most experienced guide in the Madikwe Game Reserve. He was born here and grew up and played on the roads and farmlands that became Madikwe, and he went to school in what are now the North West Parks Board’s head office and conference rooms.

He started work in the reserve as a security guard in 1992 and his brilliant career was seriously kick-started when he was chosen to attend the Mafisa* training programme, which he successfully completed, followed by practical training at one of the reserve’s luxury lodges. He came to us on Friday 13 September 2002 (a date lucky for some!).

Jonny is super knowledgeable, has eagle eyes (he could spot game through a solid brick wall) and really takes our guests into his world on his drives and walks. 

In November 2021, we received the exciting news that Johnny had been voted one of the world’s top specialist guides, receiving bronze in the prestigious Wanderlust Travel Awards launched in December 2005 to recognise the unsung heroes of the travel world: guides and tour leaders.

The organisers of the Wanderlust Travel Awards believe that guides and tour leaders are the remarkable individuals who turn their clients’ trips into life-enhancing and life-changing adventures. Thousands of travellers globally voted one of South Africa’s finest as one of the world’s best! 

*Mafisa was a course run by the Environmental Training Group in 2000 (see Chris Lucas’s biography below), where eight local villagers were selected and trained, from scratch, in all aspects of field guiding and the hospitality industry. All eight are still working very successfully in senior position in various lodges in the reserve.

Chris Lucas started all this. Chris’s passion is, and has always been, the bush. Qualified as a civil engineer (Cambridge, 1965), he ran a successful project management company towards the end of his career and retired early to enjoy his little spot in Madikwe.

As so often happens after retirement, this little hobby has become a (more than) full-time job, requiring more people, more vehicles, more cabins and more energy as the years have gone by!

Chris’s thing is most definitely the morning bush walks where his knowledge, expertise, patience and ability to make the little things in the bush come alive for you is unsurpassable.

Mosetlha started as a weekend-only operation. At the time, we couldn’t properly employ anyone – mainly because we only had guests staying sporadically. (Please note, we now operate 24/7, 365 days a year!)

It was one late afternoon: Chris was out in Old Smokey and June was on camp duty, literally keeping the home fires burning, watching the potjie bubbling on the fire, and lighting a few oil lamps to welcome everyone back for dinner.

A big old truck came rumbling down the access road and pulled right into the camp. A man jumped out and asked if June had any work for his niece, who was sitting shyly in the passenger seat. June explained that she was sorry but there really wasn’t a job available, because the camp wasn’t often open and was a very uncomplicated operation, with everyone chipping in and doing a bit of everything.

She thanked the pair and went back to heating some water using the donkey boiler. Hearing the truck head off, she turned to discover Nurse left standing there waiting to see how she could help.

Nurse never left. And she never stopped helping. She quickly lost her shyness, found her voice, and kept her amazing smile ... and now manages the housekeeping and kitchen side of things – as well as the two other ladies in her team.

Jonny suggested that his wife’s sister could come and help out for a few months while Fran was away on maternity leave.

Enter Rosie.

Rose is a fast learner, a thorough worker and genuinely cares about the people around her.

She is a bit reserved around guests (unlike her brother-in-law), but holds her own in the kitchen.

Never bossy, she is sweet and reliable and a pleasure to be around.

(Her beef potjie is the bomb – and she constructs the best vegan meals.)

We are saying a sad farewell to Andrea as she is emigrating to the UK.  We are grateful for all she has done for us and are sorry to see her go.  We wish her all the very best starting the new year and a new life in a new country - onwards and upwards, Andrea, we wish you all the joy!  

(We go into 2024 with Kelly Rabie wearing the office/reservations/project manager hat - and will update her profile in January.) 

Andrea has been your first port of call if you want to know anything about Mosetlha – before, during or after your stay.

She puts a face to the cheerful voice at the other end of the phone, and is the helpful responder to all your emails and WhatsApps.

She has taken to her job like a duck to water – and, whilst it's only been 4 years, it feels like she’s been with us forever!

Andrea arrived for an interview (on a Saturday morning, in shorts and flip-flops) when we were at the end of our rope trying to find someone to run our office. Within a few minutes, we could see that she “got” what we do at Mosetlha.

She quickly understood her role and how her work fits into the provision of your Mosetlha experience.  She started that Monday.

Andrea had wide-ranging experience before she joined Mosetlha. Here are some highlights. After leaving school and studying travel and tourism, she worked for a manufacturing company in Hong Kong. Back in South Africa, she joined Royal Swazi Airways (which eventually closed down), then Karos Hotels, followed by Travel Vision (a tour operator), where she spent a few years.
She also spent eight years running events for the United States Commercial Service.

She then took on her most important role, as a stay-at-home mom to two awesome boys. As her sons are now young men, she returned to the workforce at Mosetlha, where she does all the reservations.

Thabo is Fran’s nephew, and he has been working at Mosetlha for more than 15 years. He is the oldest of the four-person maintenance team.

This behind-the-scenes team ensures that the camp is always looking its best: that wood is received from the supplier and chopped for the fire and the donkey boilers, water is collected daily from our borehole, the laundry is delivered to a local village lady, gas bottles are received and installed, the fridge is stocked with drinks, the rubbish is burned, the (more than 150!) lanterns are cleaned and filled with paraffin.

These four guys generally make sure the place runs cleanly, greenly and efficiently.

Jonny’s baby brother, Ishmael – also called Paniso – joined Mosetlha at the end of 2019. He takes the most care in keeping the camp swept, raked and looking immaculate, and keeps the lantern glasses sparkling.  He is in charge of the aloe "garden".

Austin is based at the Johannesburg office and is worth his weight in gold. He does all the resupply lists, shops for all the groceries and almost everything else we need to operate the lodge, packs it all, and drives it to the camp once or twice a week. He also grows the salad veggies we bring to the camp.

He is an experienced barber, butcher, gardener, house-builder, painter, handyman, fish farmer, and a champion pool player. There is apparently nothing he cannot do.