The difference between
the Body Corporate vs the Commercial Company
It is still evident that there is a mix up of understanding in terms of the role of the Body Corporate vs the Commercial Company that is not only a member of the Body Corporate but also a tenant in respect of the Golf Course; with clearly defined exclusive commercial rights on the estate in lieu of the commercial agreement surrounding the Golf Course on the estate.
Zebula Country Club PTY Ltd; also known as ZCC; is a commercial company based on the Zebula Estate. We own various assets on the estate including the hotel accommodation, clubhouse, spa, pro shop, workshop, gym, convenience store, activity center, squash courts, gym, offices, support infrastructure and more. These assets are owned by ZCC and are used as an “exclusive use area” for conducting our commercial activities.
We are also whole homeowners of 11 homes, the Bush Lodge accommodation, Waterberg Luxury Lodge, and various unsold stands on Kareerfontein. As part of our commercial activity, we have engaged with various homeowners and offer a rental pool option to homeowners which is a private commercial relationship between the homeowners and ourselves as an independent commercial relationship.
Zebula Body Corporate is the collective of all the owners of units in the various schemes on the Zebula Estate. The Body Corporate is funded by levies and special levies. As much as all homeowners, we as homeowners and section holders in respect of the commercial entity, also pay body corporate levies towards the Zebula Body Corporate in direct relation to our ownership of our sections.
This is paid to maintain the common property; capital projects on behalf of the collective as well as the administrative costs of administering the scheme. The Body Corporate is run by Hennie and his TEAM in respect of the operational aspects of the Body Corporate, Jeno and his TEAM in respect of the administrative functions of the scheme and is overseen by elected officials voted in by us all as the collective of homeowners and section owners. The Body Corporate work on behalf of us all in respect the “common property” and efficient running of the estate and assist us all in enforcing all the relevant rules of the estate, which are voted in by the Body Corporate.
The Body Corporate does not manage “exclusive use” areas on the estate, neither for the commercial entity nor for individual homeowners.
From the above, you may now realize that the levies you pay; have no bearing in respect of the upkeep of our, ZCC’s, exclusive use property; and as much as it does not contribute to any other section holders exclusive use property. Each of the stakeholders of the Body corporate are independently responsible for the maintenance upkeep and design of the exclusive use areas in line with the rules of the scheme. Should there be any areas that you feel our exclusive use areas are not in line with the rules of the scheme; Our Representative would be happy to engage with you in this regard and as neighbors seek mutual collaboration in terms of any areas of concern.
In saying this the commercial entity trades and relies on a customer base who frequent the estate. It is important that we can meet and exceed reasonable expectations from our customer base based on the benchmarks we set for ourselves based on industry norms. Our customer base is primarily and most directly in respect of our own guests in respect of the hotel operation and owned homes, our customers from our rental pool, the various members of our membership programs ie. Golf Members and Homeowner Membership; homeowners and their guests who make use of the various commercial activities including Spa, Golf, Game Drives, restaurant and bar facilities, and the local community and neighboring resorts and our commercial arrangements that we have in place to attract these guests.
It remains important to us as a commercial entity to keep our product up-to-date and marketable to our various aforementioned client bases in line with the commercial objectives. We are not ignorant that this may then also have a positive impact on the collective of the Body Corporate as the reputation of the estate is garnered by the collective reputations of each individual stakeholder of the scheme. Suffice to say that ZCC being the most sizable stakeholder in the various schemes, it goes without saying that we not only have the most to lose with a poor reputation, but we also have the most to gain from a good reputation; we also have the greatest impact on the reputation of the estate. We are as such extremely vested in the maintenance and upkeep of the estate reputation.
That said our investment needs to be channeled where we have the greatest impact in respect of our commercial viability first, and areas of lesser priority channeled last.
Examples:
Many of you had queries regarding the following:
The tennis courts are an asset of the Body Corporate. We are aware that this has been budgeted for in the current financial year.
The animal cages, this was operated as a joint venture with ZCC and business partners who during COVID opted to exit the relationship as it was not a viable commercial enterprise. We have engaged with various potential stakeholders to replace the Raptor Centre; to date, this has been unsuccessful.
We welcome any business proposals in respect of this that would make this a viable option. Should individual homeowners or a collective of homeowners wish to financially partner this opportunity we will always be willing to discuss this matter further.
However, at this point, we have not prioritized a reinvestment in this project. In respect of the Put Put course, this is one of the least business viable opportunities and has little return on investment; as such we will priorities this business venture, accordingly, focusing on projects with the highest risk and or returns first and working down a list of priority.
During level four we have significantly downscaled our operation, including public area cleaners in line with hotel occupancies. In such that the pool is an “exclusive use” area for our accommodation guests, we currently do not have leisure guests in-house contributing to this area. The Pool is essentially closed to the public until we reopen operations in the lodge rooms based on the COVID operations.
The clubhouse; we will continue to maintain and update in line with our business demands, commercially sustainable priorities have been highlighted for the clubhouse upgrades. With the current COVID conditions and impact on the hospitality sector, it suffices to say that all capital expenditure has been frozen until more suitable trading conditions allow us to make a greater investment into our property.
We have reviewed our pricing model; we will continue to price and sell in accordance with our benchmark margins for each outlet and will continue to monitor these margins in line with the targets and budgets. Our margins are in line with industry benchmarks in respect of a four-star hospitality operation and will not necessarily benchmark in respect of a retail operation.