South African retail king’s son opens a new luxury safari lodge in the private Black Rhino Game Reserve

Hungry Lion CEO Adrian Basson opened his ultra-luxury Tsholo Safari Lodge in the Black Rhino Game Reserve in October. 

The reserve is located in the broader Pilanesberg region and offers guests exclusive access to the Big 5 on electric safari vehicles. 

Basson is the son of retail king Whitey Basson, who took Shoprite from a company with 8 stores to the largest retailer in Africa with 1,000 stores.

Today, Shoprite has 3,710 stores across its namesake brand, Usave, Checkers, and OK Foods.

One of the retail giant’s forgotten success stories was the launch of Hungry Lion in 1997 under the Shoprite umbrella, with Adrian Basson at its head. 

Basson saw an opportunity in 1997 to take on American fast-food giants in South Africa that were slowly investing in the country after the end of apartheid. 

The abandonment of their South African operations during apartheid gave Basson and Hungry Lion an opportunity they took with both hands. 

Shoprite opened its first Hungry Lion store in Stellenbosch and became famous for its king-sized fried chicken. 

The younger Basson leveraged the scale of Shoprite in Hungry Lion’s early years to grow its presence across South Africa. 

Hungry Lion took southern Africa by storm. By using space attached to Shoprite’s retail stores, it expanded operations across South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, and Zambia. 

The rapid growth of Hungry Lion ensured it could stand on its own relatively soon, but also created a significant problem for both it and Shoprite. 

Basson noticed in the 2000s that the association with Shoprite was too close, with Hungry Lion lacking a distinct brand identity from the retailer. This would limit Hungry Lion’s growth only to areas where there is a Shoprite. 

In 2008, Basson developed a unique identity for Hungry Lion, overhauled its stores, built its own supply chain, and opened new standalone locations. 

This development led Shoprite to the realisation that it could not add much value to the Hungry Lion business, and it decided to dispose of its interest in 2018.

Hungry Lion’s growth has accelerated since then, and it now operates 500 stores in eight markets across Africa. On track to hit 750 stores at the end of 2026, it employs 10,000 people. 

The ultra-luxury safari lodge

Hungry Lion’s success has made Basson wealthy, giving him the opportunity to follow other passions in his life. 

One of these is opening his own safari lodge, where he can share his love for South Africa’s wilderness with tourists and locals. 

“I have spent most of my career building stores. This year, I built something quieter. Tsholo Safari Lodge opened this month,” Basson revealed in a social media post.

It is a 20-bedroom luxury safari lodge located in the private Black Rhino Game Reserve, which is inside the Pilanesberg in South Africa’s North-West Province. 

“The idea was simple. A place close to Johannesburg and Pretoria where you can see the Big 5 in the morning, think clearly in the afternoon and eat very well at night,” Basson said. 

The lodge’s website explained that Tsholo has been crafted to offer an experience of rare refinement and exclusivity. 

This includes creating a luxury culinary journey, with the lodge home to world-class chefs who craft in-house menus paired with a selection of South African wines. 

The lodge includes a spa, which is set within the Tambotie forest and features three treatment rooms with views over the Pilanesberg. 

Tsholo Safari Lodge offers 14 suites, which are coupled with three elevated viewing decks and two swimming pools. 

While it has an intense focus on luxury and refinement, the lodge revolves around the bush and the Big 5. 

It offers guests the opportunity to take early-morning and late-afternoon game drives across the Pilanesberg in its silent electric safari vehicles. 

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Tsholo Safari Lodge photos

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