Lindiwe Sangweni-Siddo has been in the hospitality industry since 1987 when she studied at the
renowned hospitality school, Ecole Les, in Switzerland. Upon completion of her diploma in Hotel
Management, she furthered her studies at Penn State University and obtained a BSc in Hotel,
Restaurant and Institutional Management (HRIM), and graduated in 1993.
Her career in the hospitality industry began with Hyatt Hotels at the Grand Hyatt Washington DC in
1993 as an intern. She then joined the Park Hyatt Rosebank in 1995 as part of the management
team, and quickly rose in the ranks to join the executive committee as rooms director until 1999.
Lindiwe joined the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism (DEAT) as chief director of
tourism support in 1999 and remained there for a year, before being drawn back into the hospitality
industry by Southern Sun Hotels as general manager of the InterContinental Sandton Towers Hotel.
Five years later Lindiwe embarked on a new journey and followed her entrepreneurial spirit to start
her own hospitality company, Zuka African Tourism Investment Corporation (ZATIC). This led to her
developing and operating the first Holiday Inn in Soweto in 2007 which she later renamed the
Soweto Hotel and Conference Centre.
Lindiwe took up her post as managing director of the Birchwood Hotel and OR Tambo Conference
Centre in 2011 and subsequently became chief executive officer in 2015. In September of the same
year she joined the City Lodge Hotel Group as divisional director: operations and effective 1 July
2018 was appointed to the board of City Lodge Hotels Ltd in her current capacity as chief operating
officer. Consequently Lindiwe accepted an invitation to sit on the board of South African Tourism.
She remains a director and shareholder of the Freedom Square Hotel (Pty), the owning company of
the Soweto Hotel and Conference Centre, and she is chairperson of the Tourism Transformation
Council of South Africa (TTCSA).
In her spare time, Lindiwe surrounds herself in the company of her husband, Salifou, and her family.