A prominent businesswoman and owner of Benus Trade and Invest, Anna Mokgokong has bought Forever Resorts – a company that owns Warmbaths, Badplaas and four other South African holiday destinations.
The Competition Commission approved the purchase at the end of August and the transaction has now closed.
In a statement, it explained that no changes will be made at the property, Forever Resorts keeps its name, its management and its brands, and the group said guests, employees and partners should expect a seamless continuation.
Forever Resorts SA was formally acquired on 15 September by Benus Trade and Invest, a subsidiary of Community Investment Holdings (CIH), a 100% black-owned, women-led investment firm founded in 1995 by Dr Anna Mokgokong and Joe Madungandaba.
Which resorts are included?
The deal includes all nine flagship resorts, three lodges, and several other properties across Limpopo, Mpumalanga, the Western Cape, and the Free State.
What Mokgokong has acquired is a portfolio with roots in the apartheid state. Eight of the resorts belonged to Aventura, a state-owned company that was sold off and later liquidated. Forever Siyonwaba Resorts bought the properties in 2003 and transferred them to Forever Resorts, which has run them for 23 years.
The best known is Warmbaths at Bela Bela in Limpopo, north of Johannesburg, built on natural hot springs that produce up to 22,000 litres an hour at 53 degrees Celsius. The rest are Badplaas in Mpumalanga, Blyde Canyon, Loskop Dam, Gariep Dam and Plettenberg Bay.
Community Investment Holdings is a different kind of buyer from the listed property funds that usually compete for assets like these. It is 100% black-owned and women-led, holds a portfolio it values above R20 billion, and operates across healthcare, technology and telecommunications, power and energy, mining, logistics and infrastructure.
Who is Anna Mokgokong?
She trained as a doctor. Mokgokong holds a science degree from the University of Botswana and a medical degree from the Medical University of South Africa, and moved from medicine into business in the 1990s, when the end of apartheid opened corporate South Africa to black ownership for the first time.
Few people have collected more seats since. She has chaired AfroCentric Investment Corporation, Rebosis Property Fund and Jasco Electronics, chairs Seriti Resources and Seriti Coal, and sits on the boards of Medscheme, Schneider Electric South Africa and Adcock Ingram. In 2012 she became the first woman ever appointed to the board of Shoprite, the largest retailer in Africa.
She was also the first South African woman to receive an honorary doctorate in commerce, from the University of South Africa, and became the first female chancellor of North-West University in November 2019. She has been Iceland’s honorary consul general in Pretoria since 2017, chaired the Small Enterprise Development Agency, served as deputy chairperson of the commission that sets pay for public office bearers from 2004 to 2009, and led the International Women’s Forum South Africa. She was named South Africa’s businesswoman of the year in 1999.
Eugene van Jaarsveldt, who runs Forever Resorts as managing director, said the transaction supports the group’s continued strategic growth, and that its portfolio of resorts, hotels, lodges, self-catering accommodation and caravan and camping sites will be maintained alongside its conference, wedding and function venues.
Community Investment Holdings described itself as the new custodian of the brand, saying it is committed to preserving the destinations and keeping them accessible to South Africans for generations.
