Chris comes to the Bar

Chris Mnisi, one of our smiling and helpful team members, started working at Tanda Tula over 16 years ago. At first, he was based in the garden, showing lots of ambition and promise, he was soon promoted to part of the waitering staff and nowadays you will find him at the bar.

You may already know the beautiful woman behind the bar, Happiness, she is in fact Chris’s wife, which means that the bar has recently become their shared office space, which so far is working well. Chris says he really enjoys spending time with Happiness and learning from her.

The other reason he is so enjoying working in the bar is because he gets to spend time with our guests and has the chance to really get to know them, while also allowing him the opportunity to improve his English. Chris is aware of the advantages this has and is constantly trying to grow and expand his knowledge.

Before joining the Tanda Tula family, he was working in a completely different field. He was helping at the check-out counter and storeroom of a supermarket in a small town close to Johannesburg. Then he heard about the job opportunity at Tanda Tula and decided to grab the opportunity and moved back to his roots in the Greater Kruger area.

In his spare time, he loves playing soccer, whether on leave or at work, he will take any chance to kick a ball around. He started playing this ball sport at school and the passion has continued.

When asked about some of the funny incidents he has had to face while working in the Timbavati Private Nature Reserve he recalls one day, on his way to work, he came across an old buffalo bull hiding under a bush. This brutal beast decided he did not like the look of Chris and so decided to give him a charge. Luckily for Chris, there was a tree close by where he decided to chance his luck and hide behind. The plan worked and the buffalo lost sight of him, causing the angry dagga boy to charge off and find a new victim. You can only imagine Scotch’s surprise when he came around a corner with a vehicle full of guests and out shot a raging buffalo, only to charge him all the way around the camp dam!

Then, more recently, he captured a video of some crazy interaction outside the kitchen between a couple of hyenas and two honey badgers. The funniest thing was that he was confident enough to film the entire attack, but the minute the honey badgers declared victory and started trotting off, Chris ran for his life into the kitchen! Just going to show who really is boss in the bush!