LEADERSHIP
E M O H M O R F A HOME AWA, SY AURANT ST E R G IN D A LE ’S O T E W O MZIS THE MAN BEHIND SAKHU
Sakhumzis restaurant
H
ow did someone originally working in the banking sector become the patron of Soweto’s shining star among restaurants? Spotong chats to Sakhumzi Maqubela to find out all the juicy details.
What was the motivation for you to start a restaurant business? I was working for the bank. I used to fix their computers and their ATM’s. So my area used to be quiet, at work when they needed me they would call me on my cell phone. I’ll go and fix their computer or printers or an ATM, when I come back I come back home. Most of the time my friends when they get off from work early they would come and visit me, they know I’m always at home. So now my place was gathering more friends, more people visiting me, because they know I didn’t go to work. Anyone who comes late, early they come to me, and in the end I’m sitting drinking cold drinks, beers, almost every day. 18
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So you took that and decided to turn it into a business? Yes. And then I would see tourists passing by in the famous Vilikazi, you know the street where Mandela used to stay. I grew up on Vilikazi Street too. So I decided if now people are coming to Soweto almost every day I read newspapers, they say tourism is going in Soweto, then I decided let me rather open a business here. Let me start charging my friends for visiting me!
What features of your restaurant are you most proud about? Ah, its more of a Soweto feel, its not like when you walk in you feel you are in Sandton or – its more homely you know, its like a home away from home. At the same time we get tourists mostly from France, Belgium, Norway, and UK lately.
How important is it for townships to get tourist attractions, how does it help the community?
Ah, it does help us a lot because the roads have been improved and we’ve got a lot of attractions, there’s the Hector Pietersen Memorial, there’s Mandela Museum, so people are not only coming to Sakhumzi Restaurant just for the good food and the vibe of Soweto but they get to understand the country, where it comes from, where it is now, they get to understand South Africa, what is it all about.
How did growing up in Soweto inform your business practice? I can say for me it has made me to be streetwise. And why I opened the restaurant, it was more to break that stigma that when you think of Soweto people used to think of crime, used to think of riots only, not thinking that Soweto is a place that’s enriched with our South African history, where the country comes from, where it is now. It means quite a lot to me, that’s why I opened the restaurant, it was more on enhancing the place where I come from, where I grew up and not liking it when people look down on Soweto. That’s
