10 March 2006
	HOTELS & LEISURE Pick OF THE winners found HERE By Chris Gilmour The hotels & leisure sector has produced two of SA's most-empowered companies

Only five companies are ranked in the hotels & leisure sector this year, compared with 10 last year. Presumably this is because no other companies in this sector were ranked in the top 200 empowered companies . The companies that "fell off the list" were Sail (now delisted from the JSE), Gold Reef, Tourvest, Spur, Cullinan and Famous Brands. The Don Group, ranked number two last year, moves to the top spot, displacing Phumelela, which falls to number three. Sun International (SI), number three last year, moves up one notch to number two. City Lodge moves up one place to number four spot and Peermont, previously unranked, comes in at a maiden number five. The Don Group is the second most empowered company in the land after Sekunjalo, according to Empowerdex, having moved up from third position last year. SI and other gaming operators have viewed black economic empowerment (BEE) as an integral part of their business strategies, due mostly to the way in which casino licences have been awarded in SA. BEE requirements are driven by the conditions attached to such licences and are monitored by boards for compliance. It's not surprising, therefore, that SI and other gaming operators score well, not only in the sector but overall as well. SI is ranked as the third most empowered company in the land. SI continues to revise its strategy in accordance with the broader environment and the codes of good practice issued by the department of trade & industry (DTI). The balanced scorecard approach is the internal mechanism that is used to monitor progress. The tourism charter doesn't apply to SI, but the group has benchmarked itself against the 2009 targets of the charter (see graphic). City Lodge benchmarks itself against the tourism charter for 2009. It achieves a score of 50,11 out of 100 in this exercise, but believes that, as it works towards its 2009 targets, the targets represented are achievable within the timeframe provided. The score of just more than 50% indicates that the group is a "satisfactory" contributor to broad-based BEE in terms of the charter, with the intention of becoming a "good" contributor in the short to medium term.