Parker Cottage Guesthouse is a small, owner-managed business with six permanent staff. Seven if you count Jasper, the Parker Dachshund ...

 Phil & Liz

We’re Liz and Phil, (the owners), and came to Cape Town from the Eastern Cape (Grahamstown) in 2006. 
We bought Parker Cottage Guesthouse in 2008 after a couple of years running another guesthouse, Mountain Magic Suites.
We’re also academics by profession: Liz works in the sociology of education and is writing her Phd at the moment and Phil is a linguist with an interest in primary education. When we’re not at Parker Cottage B&B, Liz likes nothing better than anything to do with horses, gardens and fantastic outfits! Phil’s never happier than when covered in oil working on his Land Rover, skateboarding or windsurfing at Langebaan.

Donovan Jonkers

Donovan is our caretaker at Parker Cottage B&B. Even at the tender age of 24, he manages all painting and decorating here (and now also the wiring and plumbing) with exceptional diligence. He's originally from the Eastern Cape, Graff Reinet to be precise, and loves riding his racer bike around town. He now lives in Mitchell's Plain and is the main breadwinner for his household of five.

Donny plays for a local football team called Napoli (no, not the Italian one!) and makes it known that unless he is playing, the team loses.  Donny's big ambition is to become an electrician one day.

Olga Jonkers

Olga has been with us since Donovan, her son, told us that he knew someone who could help with the linen. Olga now is in charge of cleaning all the public areas of the house, the kitchen, lounges, passages and stoep, which takes all day, every day.

Olga and her husband Jeffrey brought the Jonkers family from Graff Reinet to Cape Town about ten years ago. Olga's a passionate housewife and mother of four, of which Donny is the eldest.
 

Babalwa Ngombane

Babalwa is our Senior Housekeeper at Parker Cottage B&B. She is a single mother of four and hails from the Eastern Cape.
Previously a cinema manager, Babalwa is the younger sister of Nolita, who worked for us when we were still running Mountain Magic. Babs, as she is known, is an erudite lady with impeccable English, a razor sharp mind and a broad education. This is not a woman to be underestimated. Her favourite occupation? Coming home to clean house with dinner on the table and her favourite soapies (soap operas) on the television. Her dream is to have her own catering company one day.

Thandeka Balumane

Thandeka hails from Khayalitsha and used to work for many years at An African Villa (wonderful boutique hotel on Carstens Street), and now for us. She's the mother of four too and has recently become the exceptionally proud owner of her own house after several years of struggling. 

Thandeka has a wicked sense of humour: be careful! She also greets every guest she meets with her traditional isiXhosa handshake.  It's a real honour.

 

Lexi De Coning

Lexi has been a friend of the family since we lived in Grahamstown and now is working as an Assistant Manager. Lexi's got a very big brain: she's completed her MA in English Literature at Rhodes (where Liz and I used to teach) and has all sorts of publications about monsters in fiction.

She had a bit of a baptism of fire, starting with us in a month when we were 92% full, but so far she's done a sterling job!
 

Nompilo Gcwabe

We like to do everything in house at Parker Cottage, and that goes for our linen too: so we've taken on Nompilo Gcwabe (if you don’t speak Xhosa, that’s a little hard to pronounce!) who is an old friend of Babalwa’s.

Having worked her way through six months of hard work as a general cleaner at Parker Cottage, Nompilo has now graduated to our laundry maid. She’s in charge of the laundry and linen (that is a huge job) and with the help of the industrial steam iron we bought, is doing just fine. Welcome Nompilo!
 

Jasper

Jasper is actually the son of the legendary Monty, who belongs to the owners of An African Villa, Jimmy and Louis, just up the road from Parker Cottage. He's only 10 months old, very excitable and very amusing. The only toy that we have found that will last more than a day with him is an old piece of car tyre.

Jasper regularly attends our wine evenings and makes his comments on the vintages we are tasting.