INLSA
Delise Van Der Byl, Philani Mgwaba, Thato Tsautse and Lihle Dlamini.
Awards, speeches, protocol and news of R18-billion ports are business as usual; what we really want to know is who was wearing what, sitting next to whom and what’s new.
Which is why the Durban Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s 156th annual gala dinner at the International Convention Centre last night was so scintillating.
More than 800 guests arrived in a haze of expensive perfumes and dressed to impress in designer threads.
Chamber president Thato Tsautse chose to wear a Haroun Hansrot gown once again, while the director of Thought Fire Events, Kamille Padayachee, opted for a Colleen Eitzen gown. Padayachee is busy getting ready for an African Renaissance conference to be held at the ICC in May.
Triveshan Naidoo, director of the India South Africa Business Forum, among other things, was looking snazzy as always in a white tuxedo. Naidoo, who had just launched the business forum last week, was spotted at the Vodacom table – the cellphone giants are platinum sponsors of the event. He waxed lyrical about Andrew Layman’s effect on the chamber and the positive vibe he’d brought in. Also rating high in the fashion stakes was Vodacom’s Charlene Rooi in a white number and Pebble Hlubi in a traditional Zulu dress by a Port Shepstone designer known simply as Mbe.
Cocktails in hand, the guests entered the red-themed hall, which had crystal centrepieces and a most impressive stage.
On the menu were trout, lamb shank and chocolate mousse, while on the programme were a number of speeches.
In the Alec Rogoff awards announced later in the evening, Suncoast snagged the award in the large company category for its inclusive approach to ownership. It also snagged one-time chamber employee Nikisha Deoduth, who will soon take up her post as PR manager at the casino.
Much of the chit-chat overheard was about buying houses and taking trips to India.
