June 29, 2005
By Lucille Davie
MANY Joburgers will remember with relish dining at the old Hotel School facility in Smit Street in Braamfontein, with its excellent service and scrumptious food.
The Hotel School, now under the School of Tourism and Hospitality, has found a new home in Auckland Park, at the Bunting Road Campus; it took occupancy in January this year.
The new School of Tourism and Hospitality in Auckland Park
Academic director Dr Jane Spowart says the new venue is "leaps and bounds better". Previously, the tourism and hospitality schools were spread over two campuses, at Smit Street and in Auckland Park.
The new home was sponsored initially by hotel magnate Sol Kerzner with a donation of R20-million. It is an attractive, single-storey, sandstone-coloured structure on the corner of Bunting Road and Annet Street, adjoining the established campus in Auckland Park, now part of the University of Johannesburg.
Offering a striking contrast to the three large, black gas cylinders across the road, the building has interesting angles and curves. At the same time, it blends in perfectly with its surrounds.
Spowart describes the building as "modern and simple, which suits the trends of the day".
It was custom-built for the school's requirements, and its facilities are impressive. There are four kitchens, two 60-seat restaurants, a bar, a wine and demonstration room, two conference facilities, a cigar room, computer laboratories, 17 lecture rooms fitted with state-of-the-art teaching facilities, a library and a 140-seater auditorium.
Still in the pipeline are a number of en-suite bedrooms, to be available for visiting guests and lecturers, but also for training purposes.
There are 750 students at the school at present, but there are plans to push that to 1 000. Academic staff stands at 35. A three-year diploma course in hospitality management, food and beverage management and professional cookery, and a four-year degree course, are offered, and students get a broad-based education by doing management, communication, law, information technology and accountancy modules.
"We focus on management skills contextualised to the hotel industry," Spowart says.
Students can also study for a national diploma in tourism management, which can be followed by a B Tech degree in tourism management. Masters degrees are also offered.
The school has a good reputation in the industry, Spowart says. "Students get quality training here."
An executive director, to work more closely with the hospitality industry, will soon be appointed.
The final construction bill was R47-million. About R10-million was raised from the private sector, while Len Wolman, an alumnus of the former hotel school and chief executive of the Waterford Group, a large hotel group in the US, donated a further R1-million.
He has promised a pledge system, whereby he will match every R1 donated, up to a ceiling of R250 000. The group also sponsors students. The remaining R16-million was obtained as a bank loan.
The South African Chefs Association has established itself in the building, as has the Centre of Culinary Excellence, a library and repository of culinary information. The Cape Wine Academy will take up offices at a later date.
The old Hotel School facility in Braamfontein, known as The Gables, was formerly used as a training facility for chefs. Originally an early Joburg Victorian house, it retains its attractive front veranda with wooden pillars and balustrade, painted dark brown, offset by cream plaster walls and stained and leaded glass windows.
It is set in a verdant garden with five large jacaranda trees. Sadly, the building looks a little neglected since the school moved out last year. It has been sold to Central College.
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