Stella Khumalo, chief executive of uShaka Marine World, took top honours in the government section of the Durban Businesswomen’s Association Regional Business Achiever Awards 2016, reinforcing her achievements at the helm of Africa’s largest marine theme park.

On accepting her award at a gala dinner on Friday, 29 July 2016 at the Durban International Convention Centre, Mrs Khumalo thanked both her team at uShaka for delivering world class service on the ground and the uShaka Board for their unwavering support.

“As CEO, I aim to continuously make a difference. Being head of uShaka Marine World means ensuring that this ship remains buoyant, continues to sail smoothly and reaches new waters that it has not reached before. I want to ensure that uShaka Marine World continues to grow in stature and further entrenches itself as one of the leading edutainment and tourist destinations in eThekwini, KwaZulu-Natal and South Africa,” she said.

Mrs Khumalo provides strategic management and leadership to a staff complement of 500. Under her tenure, uShaka has displayed a commitment to sound financial management and good corporate governance which resulted in a clean audit during the past financial year.

During her career, Mrs Khumalo has focused on three key areas - education, tourism and assisting the previously disadvantaged.

As head of uShaka Marine World, Mrs Khumalo faces a number of challenges, not least of which is growing footfall in the park during tough economic times when people are cutting down their spend on luxuries. This entails dealing with issues such as seasonality, broadening the target market of uShaka, diversification of offerings, encouraging repeat visits and always giving visitors a ‘beyond our expectations’ experience.

As CEO, Mrs Khumalo is tasked with delivering on this mandate. In addition, she is also charged with aligning the development objectives with those of its major shareholder, the eThekwini Municipality uShaka Marine World is about to embark on a programme comprising short, medium and long term projects over the next 20 years to ensure that it remains a must see attraction.

www.ushakamarineworld.co.za