This month’s Spotlight falls on a ‘pocket battleship’ of a woman, Lizmari Wolmarans.

  I was amazed at how easy it was to get to have a face-to-face meeting with Lizmari. A person that runs her own business, and then has taken on the momentous task rejuvenating the Hoedspruit Chamber of Commerce (now called Hoedspruit Chamber/Sakekamer) and being the administrator of the Hdt Town Concerns group on WhatsApp – she should by rights not have any time available for anyone! But here we are, in her office and settled in for my short interview.

  Lizmari is a ‘Hoedie’ through and through, born and bred in Hoedspruit, she has resided here for the past 42 years! She owns and manages her glass and aluminium company – Hoedspruit Glass and Home.

  The rejuvenation of the Chamber was as a result of a tragic car crash involving her soulmate. She could not believe the overwhelming support she received from the community, and because of that she felt she had to thank them for their support somehow.

  She decided she had to give back to the community in one way or another, so she got involved with Farm Watch and Town Watch but it was not an active enough role. So, she started helping out with projects and initiatives in and around Hoedspruit.

  This all started with the township development. Lizmari rallied a group together and had community involvement with great success. Then, having seen her efforts bear fruit, many people approached her to resurrect the Chamber. The Chamber is the only apolitical, government recognised organisation that can put pressure on local authorities and the like, to get things done in the town. She had meetings with previous chamber members, industry mentors and residents that spurred her on to the point where she leapt into the void! Together with seven others, Lizmari launched a new version of the Chamber in March of 2023.

  “To be honest I literally do not know how I do it”, was Lizmari’s response to the question of being on call 24/7. “Every moment I am not working I spend on the Chamber.” It’s got to the point where her hobbies right now are the Chamber, and possibly a glass of red wine on Friday evenings!

  It seems there are too many people that appreciate a sympathetic ear, and far too many that thank the Chamber for what they do – even though they are not doing half as much as they want to do. The gratitude given, makes up for all the hard work and time sacrifice made. “Nothing is too much at this stage”, she shyly admits. Although she did have a jesting caveat comment that she is not sure that will be the case in a year’s time.

Lizmari feels the most pressing issues in the town currently are threefold; infrastructure, municipal policy, and the continued approval of developments without resolving the water and sewage infrastructure problems facing the town. She feels that some projects are being planned and/or approved while the current infrastructure is unable to handle the development.

  “We are in the process of building a ‘trust relationship’ with the municipality – unfortunately due to workload, we don’t get the short notice meetings that are so essential”, she says. Sadly, there is a delay of the necessary feedback from officials that is so desperately required, but it appears that the municipality is trying to build this necessary relationship with the Chamber. “It is much better than a year ago and we hope that it will still grow’, Lizmari says. It can always improve, and it extends further to Mopani and with all the other role players that have vested interests in the services in the town.

  “We do have big plans for tourism, but the Chamber will never, and can never, fulfil the role of a Tourism Association. We will support them however they need, and I really do not know why we cannot have a Tourism Indaba here in Hoedspruit! We are ideally positioned for that. But we need to first tidy up the town big time, because we CAN be the video of ‘that town on the wall’ of the arrival’s terminals at OR Tambo! I don’t think it’s enough to say we are promoting the tourist industry at the moment, but we are working towards it”, she stated.

  The Chamber recently attended the fifth forum meeting with the biggest role players concerning the water and sewerage situation in town and the surrounds. The main role players are the Department of Defence, Maruleng, MBB, the Water Board, Sanedi , Department of Water, Department of Public Works and others. The issue in Hoedspruit is that one department is not responsible for everything. Currently, the contract for the conveyancing of water and sewage is with one body, the rates is with another, maintenance is with yet another, and so it is a difficult and laborious situation. However, these meetings saw an enthusiasm by the role players to come up with solutions. Sanedi (appointed by the Department of Defence) launched an investigation – nothing to do with Hoedspruit – on how to improve the status inside the Airforce Base. But by extension this does impact the town.

  Since the beginning, the Airforce Base has been the ally and protector of the community, supplying the town with water and sewage infrastructure. But nobody saw how the town would explode. The system is now ‘operating’ over capacity and cannot handle the current load, and certainly not the load into the future.

  Options have already been formulated, and are being considered, to be implemented. This will be presented to the relevant department for a decision to be made. Behind the scenes, Mopani and Maruleng have been working hard together with, amongst others, MBB (who are an appointee for the pipeline owner, RMB) to formulate how contracts are going to be renewed, to see if there is a way to get a better structural management program in place. Mopani and Maruleng are also looking into the incomplete projects (both water and sewage) that were launched in previous years. It is Lizmari’s hope that in the next year or two there will be observable progress of the solution.

  This is not an easy solution issue, it is very difficult, and the red tape (in place for good reason), is so onerous that it takes copious amounts of time and energy to wade through. Lizmari believes the correct role players are in place and that correct planning ensures correct implementation. “I am hopeful that answers will be forthcoming sooner rather than later, because there are a lot of stakeholders that are dedicated to getting this sorted out”.

  “Development does not translate into growth or progress – maintenance, planning and responsible management ensures that!”

  Hoedspruit town can be thankful that we have someone of the energy, passion, patience, and determination as Lizmari has, to look after our interests and drive the rights and wishes of the community. Thank you for all your efforts.

Join ‘Hdt Town Concerns’ on WhatApp and/or join the Hoedspruit Chambers, or email them on hoedspruitcs@gmail.com