March 9, 2009

“Sometimes I feel I should pinch myself,” says Erica Saunders, Marketing Manager of Maropeng. “I am so privileged to do what I do. How many people can say that they work in a World Heritage Site?”

Erica joined Maropeng in October 2006, after she was headhunted from her previous position as project manager at Thebe Exhibitions and Events Group.

“I love the challenge and excitement of working at Maropeng,” she says. “No day is like the day before. I enjoy the challenge of trying to get something difficult to understand out into the public arena. Talking about things that are 4.6-billion years old and trying to make them accessible to people is difficult, but I thrive on the challenge.”

Part of the mandate of Maropeng is to create jobs for the surrounding community. Erica takes great pleasure in working with and helping young people, who may lack skills but are enthusiastic and eager to learn.

Sylvia Makgetla, Sales and Marketing Assistant at Maropeng, is one of the people Erica has trained. Sylvia has a high regard for Erica, saying: “She is professional, generous, understanding and always willing to assist whenever she can. She always goes the extra mile and puts her whole heart into everything she does. It is very nice to work with her.”

“There’s so much to do here,” Erica says, “so much to achieve, so much young energy and so many people to watch grow. They’ll overtake me one day.”

It is not only the lives of others that Erica is changing – Maropeng has given her more confidence and respect for herself. Her official title is marketing manager, but Erica is involved in numerous aspects of the company. “Maropeng challenges me in everything I do,” she says.

Rather than view the challenges of her job as trials to struggle through, Erica casts them in a positive light, saying: “We are promoting something that flies in the face of many people’s beliefs; it is a sensitive project. I think we need to acknowledge that we don’t have all the answers and to strike a balance between the different views. I am always thinking of new ways to do what we are doing. I eat, dream and sleep Maropeng!”

Erica attributes much of the success and enjoyment of her job to the privilege of working with Tony Rubin, Managing Director of Maropeng. She describes him as a “wise, patient man” and “a very good leader”.

Tony holds Erica in equally high regard. “She is a very special lady,” he says, “highly charged, absolutely professional at all times, and full of energy and passion, which is exactly what we need in the marketing side of this business.”

Anita Vernes, Director of Southern Spoor, is similarly enthusiastic in her praise of Erica, calling her “one of the most professionally and passionately dedicated people we have worked with”.

“I have great respect for the time and effort Erica puts into promoting Maropeng,” she says. “On a personal level, she is also one of the most pleasant people we have worked with, and she’s fun. She approaches everything with so much commitment. As a company that specialises in marketing, our role is always made easier by working with someone who provides such support when getting the job done.”

Erica’s passionate dedication to her job is clear as she loves talking to visitors about Maropeng and asking them why they enjoy it. She especially enjoys watching the young visitors to the exhibition, as her most special memories of Maropeng attest.

Young schoolchildren in the community visit Maropeng and are assisted with the entry fee. On one occasion, Erica accompanied a church group from Soweto around the exhibition. “The little children were so well behaved and took everything in with big eyes and so much enthusiasm,” she says. “They had obviously never experienced anything like it before. On the boat ride they weren’t sure whether to cry with fear or laugh, but they wanted to do it again and again. I think in some ways it helps young children to deal with their fears.”

During a family day with Southern Spoor, Maropeng’s travel trade and marketing and sales partner, Erica was amazed at how much the children absorbed as they explored Sterkfontein Caves and Maropeng. “By the end of the day they were prompting the guides, showing them how much they had learnt. A few of the children actually asked if they could become guides at Maropeng,” she says.

This is what Erica envisions for Maropeng’s future. “I would like every school child to say: ‘I’ve been or I’m going to Maropeng,’” she says. “People often talk about visiting Sterkfontein as children, but they haven’t gone back. I want people to go back to Maropeng again and again, and to bring their children and their grandchildren.”

In international terms, Erica wants to promote Maropeng to the extent that people can’t imagine coming to South Africa without visiting Maropeng. “It is so important in understanding what humankind is and where we are going,” she says. “I want to create more memories and have people talking about their experiences at Maropeng for years to come.

“We have a huge responsibility to impart our heritage, and it’s not just South Africa’s heritage – it belongs to all humankind.”