City Lodge Hotels (CLH), in collaboration with Sigma International and the SATSA Tourism Business Incubator, proudly launches Year 4 of its transformative Enterprise and Supplier Development (ESD) programme, a journey defined by meaningful impact, innovation and inclusivity.
This milestone is not just about sustaining a programme but celebrating its intentional influence on lives, businesses, and communities.
City Lodge Hotels is a proudly South African hospitality group with 58 hotels across Southern Africa. Its four brands, Courtyard Hotel, City Lodge Hotel, Town Lodge, and Road Lodge, cater to diverse travel needs.
To date, the initiative has empowered 47 tourism-focused SMMEs across South Africa, offering tailored business development support and facilitating access to the hospitality sector’s procurement value chain.
“As we reflect on this journey, we are not merely ticking compliance boxes – we are acknowledging the journey of transformation. Our commitment to inclusive growth is rooted in action, outcomes, and the belief that entrepreneurship is the heartbeat of a sustainable economy. Being intentional about our commitment has reinforced our success and the positive milestones we have seen our ESD partners achieve,” says Lindiwe Sangweni-Siddo, Chief Operating Officer of City Lodge Hotels.
The programme’s success lies in its blended incubator approach, combining business development support with operational enablement tailored to each SMME’s needs. Backed by Sigma International’s 17 professionals and a network of 30+ partners, this ecosystem has proven highly effective.
ISO 9001:2015 certified, the programme integrates human-centred and AI-driven tools to help entrepreneurs build resilient businesses. Support includes training webinars, management accounts, branding, equipment grants, marketing development, business linkages, and digital transformation assistance—ensuring practical and powerful interventions.
A key differentiator is the programme’s integration with hotel operations. General managers from CLH’s 55 South African hotels (plus properties in Windhoek, Gaborone, and Maputo) nominate beneficiaries and actively mentor them, fostering an embedded and empowering business support experience.
“We’re championing a new kind of supplier development, one that is deeply integrated, practical, and geared towards long-term sustainability. Watching our suppliers grow and diversify is deeply rewarding. It’s not just about today’s contracts, but about helping build tomorrow’s resilient and sustainable businesses. We also want to see the SMMEs that we partner with scaling up and growing into companies that have a national footprint, and are hopefully global entities one day,” adds Lindiwe.
As a B-BBEE Level 1 Contributor, CLH prioritises the growth of its ESD partners, tracking progress in revenue and employment. The programme continues to drive digitalisation, AI adoption, diversification, and self-empowerment, preparing entrepreneurs for the future economy.
Year 4 marks more than continuity, it’s a call to action for the broader tourism sector. By documenting this journey, CLH invites industry stakeholders to join in fostering an inclusive, empowered tourism economy, one entrepreneur at a time.
