At a Cape Town Gathering for World Elephant Day, African Bush Camps Foundation Celebrates 20 Years of Impact

Cape Town, South Africa, 12 August 2026. At The Cellars-Hohenort, 58 guests gathered for an afternoon of lunch, storytelling, and conversation to mark two decades of African Bush Camps Foundation. The room included African Bush Camps employees, African Bush Camps Foundation board members, along with partners and close industry friends.

Beks Ndlovu, Founder and CEO of African Bush Camps, used the afternoon to reflect on the vision that shaped the company from the start. Tourism, he believes, should create lasting benefits for both people and wildlife:

“In my culture, every family has a totem. Mine is Ndlovu, the elephant. When I first started African Bush Camps, I didn’t go looking for a symbol. I already had one. I simply chose to build a company guided by the same values the elephant has always represented. Two decades later, the elephant still leads the way,” says Ndlovu.

A Story Twenty Years in the Making

One moment at The Cellars-Hohenort captured what that vision looks like in practice. Guests saw a Somalisa-inspired malva pudding listed on the menu. Only when the dessert was presented were they told the story of a trainee waitress at Somalisa Camp who had worked her way into the kitchen and become a renowned chef. That inspiring woman is Chef Sheron, who traveled from Zimbabwe to Cape Town for the occasion, and it was she who made the dessert, standing right there in the room.

Chef Sheron’s path into hospitality began through the Foundation’s Women in Tourism Program, which gave her the training and support to grow from that first role into the kitchen. As part of the Cape Town gathering, she also had the chance to work in the kitchen of a Michelin Key property, an experience she calls “an opportunity of a lifetime,” one that exposed her to a new level of culinary skill and professional growth. The malva pudding she presented that afternoon was one of the first desserts she ever made.

“I always wanted to wear the ABC jacket,” says Chef Sheron.

“When I got this job as a chef, I could support my mother and three brothers. Now, as a mother myself, I can care for my daughter, pay her school fees, and support my family,” she describes.

Conservation for the Future

The afternoon’s conversations brought different perspectives to the Foundation’s vision for the future, and to the importance of conserving the landscapes that sustain both people and wildlife.

Lizette Moolman, a wildlife ecologist and conservation biologist with SANParks, shared insights from her research on elephants in the Knysna region, helping guests understand the complexities of elephant conservation and the importance of protecting the landscapes these species depend on. Her research highlighted the role of data and evidence in understanding and informing conservation, connecting directly to the Foundation’s Vision 2030: Connected Landscapes, Thriving Communities.

Simon Hartley, Founder of Thorndale, storyteller and leadership advisor, brought a different lens to the conversation, sharing his journey into storytelling as a tool for driving change. Building on Lizette Moolman’s insights, he reflected on the power of storytelling to bring data to life, helping people connect with, remember, and understand why it matters.

Two Decades on Display

For the past 20 years, the Foundation has worked alongside remote communities living within some of Africa’s most celebrated landscapes, investing in conservation, education, healthcare, and sustainable livelihoods across Botswana, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. That history was on full display at the gathering’s 20 Years of Impact exhibition. It traced the scale of the Foundation’s work, the communities and landscapes at its center, and the partnerships that continue to strengthen both.

A Shared Purpose

The gathering was an opportunity to reflect on the role tourism can play in creating lasting, long-term impact. While organizations across tourism may compete commercially for guests and bed nights, the challenges facing Africa’s landscapes and communities are shared, and the Foundation believes there is an opportunity to work toward a common purpose: sharing and conserving Africa alongside communities, conservation partners, and the wider tourism industry. It’s a belief that speaks directly to the Foundation’s Connected Landscapes, Thriving Communities vision.

“Paying fees is compliance,” says Ian Mills, Chief Conservation Officer for African Bush Camps Foundation. “But compliance alone does not equate to impact.”

The World Elephant Day Campaign

The afternoon also marked the launch of African Bush Camps’ World Elephant Day campaign, reaffirming African Bush Camps’ commitment to ensuring tourism continues to support conservation where it matters most.

For every qualifying booking made during the campaign period, African Bush Camps will donate USD 330 to the African Bush Camps Foundation to support the future of elephants. That includes habitat restoration, conservation education, community conservation initiatives, and human-wildlife coexistence programs across all three countries.

Because when communities thrive, conservation thrives.