Tourism & Hospitality Adviser. Previously Special Adviser to Min. Hanekom. Prior Grant Thornton Head of Advisory in SA.
Johannesburg, South Africa
Joined September 2010
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Gillian Saunders🇿🇦 retweeted
Tatjana Smith Switches To Netherlands
Many don't understand how sport is funded in SA, what the ministers role is and what responsibility federations like Swimming SA and Hockey SA have.
SA Sport has a governance crisis and unfortunately, Tatjana won't be the last
Breakdown here 👇🏽
Gillian Saunders🇿🇦 retweeted
Many countries, including South Africa, should be looking at this evidence:
Gillian Saunders🇿🇦 retweeted
Please do not allow any politician or political party to gaslight you into believing that the way the public voted has somehow forced them into an impossible situation where they now have too little time to negotiate and form governments.
The Local Government: Municipal Structures Amendment Bill, commonly referred to as the Coalitions Bill, has been in development since 2024 and was only formally introduced in Parliament in August 2026.
Among other things, the Bill was meant to provide a proper legislative framework for coalitions, including extending the current 14-day period for convening newly elected councils to 30 days, giving parties more time to negotiate.
Every single political party knew this. We have been dealing with coalition governments since 2016. We went through this again in 2021. Nobody can pretend that the possibility of hung councils in 2026 came as a surprise.
I personally called at least one senior person in each of the big six political parties, in some cases more than one, to raise these very issues. So I know they knew.
Yet I have already heard two politicians suggesting that voters have put them in this difficult position.
No. The voters did their jobs. They voted.
Political parties had years to prepare for these outcomes and to ensure that the necessary legislative reforms were in place. That this was not done cannot now become the responsibility of the electorate.
The public is not responsible for political parties failing to plan for an electoral outcome they knew was entirely possible.
And please, let us not start treating voters exercising their democratic rights as an inconvenience to politicians who now have to negotiate with one another.
Democracy does not exist to produce results that are administratively convenient for political parties.
Gillian Saunders🇿🇦 retweeted
Daniel Farke criticised in recent weeks, his Leeds United faltering to 2 defeats and 3 draws in 5 PL games. But he definitely deserves praise for in-game changes v Spurs: Bard and Okafor in particular had a huge impact. Farke has Leeds punching above their weight, 8th atm #LUFC
Gillian Saunders🇿🇦 retweeted
Tonight, a mosque hosted a Shabbat against genocide. Jews, Muslims and people of different backgrounds standing together for Palestine and humanity. This is who we are in South Africa.
@SAJFP_
Gillian Saunders🇿🇦 retweeted
‘Our rights should not be bargained’ says @Fawziakoofi77 about the ‘normalisation’ of basic rights being stripped away from her fellow women and girls in Afghanistan
Indeed, women in Afghanistan have been systematically erased from public life. UN experts have warned that this may amount to crimes against humanity, including gender apartheid.
We appreciate France’s firm support to us in many front throughout our history including their support of Afghanistan case with ICC and the independent mechanism.
No nation committed to human rights and equality should normalize this reality or engage unconditionally with those denying fundamental rights to half the population.
We reiterated this position in our meeting with H.E. @jnbarrot today. Our rights should not be bargained.
@PorteParoleMEAE
Gillian Saunders🇿🇦 retweeted
It's early, there's a lot of hours to go and it needs to persist, but in hour 1, we are on a trajectory of higher suburban turnout than what has been assumed in the polling.
Gillian Saunders🇿🇦 retweeted
We wanted to invest R70m in Howick, KZN, but the municipality turned us down and opted to work with a company that wants invest R2 million, we still cannot get the reason for rejecting a R70m project that would have transformed the Howick Falls into something spectacular.
Gillian Saunders🇿🇦 retweeted
My only elections advice South Africa is this - just turn up and vote! There’s no perfect party, councillor or mayoral candidate. Local election is the most important because you’re choosing the level and quality of basic service delivery you want right at your home and in your community. You only get one chance, one say, and you’ll have to live with the result for the next five years.
Gillian Saunders🇿🇦 retweeted
#SouthAfrica🇿🇦....! What an incredible country.
Gillian Saunders🇿🇦 retweeted
One concerning thing I've heard people say is: 'Party X always wins this ward, so it doesn't matter if I go vote'
THIS IS WRONG.
Every single vote (ward and PR) gets put into the overal seat % calculation. So EVERY VOTE matters in EVERY WARD. TURN OUT. GO VOTE ON WEDNESDAY!
Gillian Saunders🇿🇦 retweeted
Durban Chosen As Preferred Olympics Host City
The South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (Sascoc) has selected Durban as the preferred host city for the planned 2036 to 2040 Summer Olympic and Paralympic games.
Durban was previously stripped of the Commonwealth Games hosting rights
Gillian Saunders🇿🇦 retweeted
Why the best-laid plans for SA’s broken metros won’t work — and what will dailymaverick.co.za/opinioni…
😥
Unemployed doctors ready to serve public health system that ‘cannot afford to hire them’ dailymaverick.co.za/article/…
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Gillian Saunders🇿🇦 retweeted
In the past, countries designed national tourism strategy with three main moves:
- Audit raw assets (which had typically accumulated over years)
- Build infrastructure to convert the asset into a polished experience (the more "shiny luxury-looking" the more you could charge)
- Then deploy heavy CNN-style marketing
Times have changed.
Doha's Hamad Airport shows how some countries are taking the leap.
Checkout the video for "The Orchard". It is a "tropical rainforest" tucked into Hamad Airport.
Featuring over 300 sustainable trees, 25,000 plants, a 575-square-meter bio-pond water thingy, and a sweeping 85-meter grid-shell glass roof, this spot is a hit with overstressed travelers looking for an oasis.
Traditionally, an airport was just the gate. You got marks for how quickly you could process people out.
Qatar's Orchard flips this narrative by positioning the airport as the first touchpoint of the destination brand.
It also says that luxury is no longer defined by "shiny". It is defined by wellness, space, and feelings of wholesomeness. How best to deliver that than through a connection to nature (biophilic design)?
National tourism strategy must recognise changing trends.
First, national tourism brands are built from the bottom up via social proof. "Ordinary people" experiencing the flow and spreading the word.
A country’s brand is no longer what the Ministry of Tourism puts on a poster. It grows from the raw unedited footage that spreads across social media.
Second, that makes CREATIVITY central. Concepts must aim for distinction, memorability, authenticity, and connection. You can't just hire a top agency to do a brilliant one-off ad and move on.
In Bangkok airport, they have blended national cultural imagery with authentic Thai dance displays (see pictures in the thread.)
The right concept breathes, it evolves, it grows on you.
(Now, let me ruin this with a small political jab: that is why Ghana's National Cathedral was so unpopular in certain quarters. 😉 It lacked creative sophistication and distinction.)
Gillian Saunders🇿🇦 retweeted
Weekly reminder:
1) There is a critical mass of votes leaning very marginally/floating
2) The pollsters are assuming turnout (& it's crucial) - TURN OUT TO VOTE
3) Headlines roughly right in JHB - DA biggest, but coalition needed
But 33/38/43 is still up in the air - TURN OUT
Gillian Saunders🇿🇦 retweeted
How the Middle East conflict is reshaping the multipolar global order dailymaverick.co.za/opinioni…
