Making Room at the Inn: Lindiwe Sangweni-Siddo

One of South Africa’s foremost hotel executives is driven by her deep faith. Lindiwe Sangweni-Siddo was interviewed by Daluxolo Moloantoa.

There are many hospitality stories in the Bible: the Wedding at Cana, the Last Supper, or the Feeding of the Multitudes. The best-known of them is the Nativity narrative in Bethlehem, where there was no room at the inn, yet the Lord ensured that Mary and Joseph had a roof over their heads as Jesus came into the world. For hotelier Lindiwe Sangweni-Siddo, CEO of the City Lodge Hotel Group, it is this direct relation to her three-decades-long career and her spirituality which fuels her passion to serve in tourism and hospitality.

When they escaped apartheid in 1965, Lindiwe’s parents had no idea that it was the beginning of a life spanning several countries and decades away from their homeland.

Having experienced apartheid in South Africa, they decided that it was better to raise a family away from the chokehold of an oppressive system.

Lindiwe was born to Zulu parents in Manzini, Eswatini, in 1966. Her brother Dumisani was born two years later. “My parents say that we were the first children to be baptised with African names in Swaziland,” Lindiwe told The Southern Cross. Administering the sacrament was Bishop Aloysius Mandlenkosi Zwane at the Our Lady of Assumption cathedral in Manzini, the same church where she would later make her first Communion. At that time, it was not a common practice to baptise children with African names, so parents often gave their children biblical names like John and Ruth. “My parents felt strongly that their Zulu culture must be prominent in the naming of their children.”

At the time Lindiwe’s father, Stan Sangweni, was the head of the Luyengo Agricultural College, at a time when Swaziland was at the cusp of independence. Lindiwe’s first taste of international travel was as a little girl of six, when the family moved to the Netherlands in 1971, while her father pursued a master’s degree in geography. Two years later the family returned to Swaziland; two years later they moved to Lusaka, Zambia, after Mr Sangweni’s appointment to the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa. In Lusaka Lindiwe continued her primary and junior-high schooling.

Political exiles

In the Zambian capital Mr Sangweni and his wife Angela became increasingly involved in the anti-apartheid struggle. They met great leaders of the African National Congress (ANC), such as the organisation’s president Oliver Reginald Tambo, future SA President Thabo Mbeki, Sophie and Benny de Bruyn (both Catholics), Ruth Mompati, Johnny Makathini, and many more cadres of the liberation movement. Mr Sangweni’s sister, the recently late Lindiwe Mabuza — also Catholic — lived with the family after going into exile in 1975.

This conscientised the children to the horrors of apartheid — and the price of resisting the system. “From 1976, our family was no longer able to visit family in South Africa, because both my parents’ active involvement in the anti-apartheid struggle was now a danger to themselves and their families in South Africa — they were officially deemed political exiles,” Lindiwe recalls.

Way before she could even think of visiting her homeland for the first time, Lindiwe completed her high school education at Waterford-Kamhlaba School in Mbabane, Eswatini, in 1983. By then, her parents had relocated to Nairobi, Kenya.

“I was confirmed in Nairobi at the church of St Ignatius. I was active as a youth, taught catechism to Grade 1 students as a teacher’s assistant — which was a lot of fun — and was also a reader at Mass,” she recalled.

After furthering her studies in Nairobi, Lindiwe took the first steps towards following her passion: hotel management. In 1987, she enrolled at the Ecole Les Roches Hotel Management School for a diploma in hotel management, and then furthered her studies with a BSc in hotel, restaurant and institutional management degree at Penn State University in the United States. Her first job in the hotel industry was in 1993 as assistant front office manager at the Grand Hyatt in Washington, DC. She later served in the same position at the Park Hyatt in Johannesburg.

Service to the Church

In Johannesburg, Lindiwe joined the parish she still belongs to today, the church of the Resurrection in Bryanston. For many years, her parish priest there was the late Fr Michael Fitzpatrick, and since 2014 Fr Keith Gordon-Davis. Lindiwe is an active parishioner. In 2007 she became an extraordinary minister of the Eucharistic.

“It has been a very important role for me,” she said. “I find that any role within the Church is an absolute privilege, which I do not take for granted.

I find deep fulfilment in visiting the sick and the elderly members of our parish. It is one of the most humbling acts of service one human being can give to another. One is able to serve Jesus directly.” She has also served as an elected member of the parish pastoral council for the past six years.

Lindiwe’s wedding in 1995, however, was at her parents’ church, St Anne’s in Atteridgeville, Pretoria, conducted by Fr David Moetapele. She married Salif Siddo, whom she met while they were both students at Penn State.

“Ours is an interfaith marriage; he is a Muslim. Salif and his family were very comfortable celebrating our union in a Catholic church. It was a memorable day that brought our families — from Niger and South Africa — under one roof and in total harmony, in spite of our various cultural and religious backgrounds,” she recalled. “It was a colourful celebration, with our guests dressed beautifully in an explosion of colour from various African designs made of the finest fabrics. The late melodious songstress Sibongile Khumalo graced the occasion by singing ‘Ave Maria’ as we solemnised our vows. It was a truly beautiful day which I shall never forget.”

Growing up for a career

Sangweni-Siddo has carved a remarkable career in the hotel and tourism industry, despite her father’s original wish that she should become a medical doctor. “With the exposure to many different countries, and our life of travelling from place to place, I became very attracted to the tourism and hospitality industry.”

Hospitality was part of growing up. “My mother was also an accomplished home economics teacher, and over the years I had been exposed to her hospitable nature at home, where she often received guests, such as Oliver Tambo and his entourage. I would often assist her. She is an amazing cook and a meticulous homekeeper. I believe all of this must have had some influence on my love for the hospitality industry.”

As the founder of the Zuka African Tourism and Investment Corporation (ZATIC)‚ Sangweni-Siddo pioneered the development of the Soweto Hotel and Conference Centre.

The hotel is the first black female-owned four-star hotel in a South African township. “The hotel has been pivotal in providing training and exposure to black youth who are keen to join our industry. Acquiring skills and qualifications for our youth is not always easy, given the financial outlay to acquire the prerequisite skills and knowledge of the industry. The Soweto Hotel and Conference Centre has played this training role from its inception.”

The centre is located on a historic national heritage site — the place in Kliptown where the Freedom Charter was adopted in 1955. “This makes the hotel prominent, as we are able to give a historical account through not only the location but also the décor, photography on the walls, and the political background and historical context that one can follow in the Kliptown Museum situated opposite the hotel. There are youth from Kliptown and Soweto at large who have become tour guides over the years, and other owners of businesses such as quad biking, bungee jumping, bicycle rides, bird watching, arts and crafts and much more, who have benefited from the existence and location of the Soweto Hotel and Conference Centre,” she said.

The tourism and hospitality industry suffered a major blow with the Covid-19 pandemic. Sangweni-Siddo has been at the coalface of the disruption brought about by the pandemic. The industry had to close down all operating hotels at the onset of the national state of disaster in March 2020. Nearly half a million jobs were lost. “The pandemic threw our sector into total disarray, as a result of local and global lockdowns. The lockdowns put a very long pause on travel with stringent restrictions. However, as the reign of turmoil caused by the pandemic gradually subsides, we are beginning to see signs of recovery.”

Led by the Holy Spirit

As a Catholic, Lindiwe’s spirituality has had a defining impact on her career and her life in general. “I am where I am because of my beliefs and faith. In recent times, with the impact of Covid on my personal and professional life, I know I could not be where I am without my faith and belief in God. My spirituality as a Catholic is a dynamic journey, and led by the Holy Spirit all the time,” she said.

The loss of her father on May 18, 2021, came most unexpectedly. “Even as my family said our last goodbyes at his hospital bedside, we were consoled by his acceptance of his impending death. He told us he was ready to meet his Maker, and that he was not afraid of death. He asked for the last rites to be performed by Fr Thulani Skhosana. He told the priest that he was preparing for his departure. Fr Skhosana later described this as a ‘good death’. Hard as it has been for me to come to terms with my father’s demise, I am always consoled in my heart at how he lived his life always in close communion with God our Father, and how he allowed the Holy Spirit to enable his transition.”

Prayer and conversation with God form part of Lindiwe’s daily routine. “My day begins and ends in prayer. I do gratitude walks, which I have about three or four times a week. As I walk very early in the morning, I am in conversation with God, and I use nature as my palette to paint my messages of gratitude to God. I thank him for all of my senses which are brought alive by the fragrances of flowers, the sounds of birds, the beautiful bursts of colour, the temperature of the air on my skin. I use these walks to praise and thank God for everything I can think of. When I am feeling down, I am always uplifted and energised once I have had my gratitude walk.”

Lindiwe believes Catholic professionals are not doing enough to use their “professional platforms to evangelise and spread the Word of God. There is a tendency for many of us, myself included, to shy away and not really share our experience of knowing the Lord, and testifying on the good things that we have experienced in our journey with God through thick and thin,” she said.

“I always ask God to use me as an instrument of his in everything I do. I try to use my God-given talents as tools to enhance my work and interactions with people, and my prayer is that they recognise all the good they see in me as proof of God’s existence.”

She added: “The Church could definitely use professionals more in its advancement and development by involving professionals in all aspects of its work, for the greater good.”

This article was published in the July 2022 issue of The Southern Cross magazine