After saving for many years to start his dream business, Kwanele Mbatha’s world – and business – came crashing down when his mobile kitchen was stolen. The setback was massive and Mbatha has had to close shop after saving for six years to launch his business. Mbatha, who is from Pinetown in KwaZulu-Natal, told Vutivi News that he started Kota Kheyos in 2018.
“I saw a business opportunity in KZN, and saw that KZN, in general, is one of the places in South Africa where you can develop business and thrive,” he said. “I dug deep into my savings which I acquired from 2011 to 2017. However, I only had R90,000, which at that time was not enough to start the business.” Mbatha said he approached a woman who agreed to partner with him.
“We had an agreement which stated that she would partner with me for a specific period, and when that period lapses, she would take the business concept and run with it in another location,” he said.
They started selling kotas, braaied meat and sandwiches in Pietermaritzburg and then in Pinetown. They had six employees in Pietermaritzburg and four in Pinetown. “After we made a considerable profit, she took the concept as agreed to Dutywa in the Eastern Cape, and I was left with the money I started with,” he said. But in the following year, Mbatha was in for a nasty surprise.
“I had been hired to provide catering for a particular event. When I went to check on the mobile kitchen where I left it in the Westville campus of the University of KwaZulu-Natal, I found that it wasn’t there,” he said.
“I could not believe it. At first, I thought it was some kind of joke, but when it hit me that I had really lost the mobile kitchen I was devastated. Thanks to the loss we lost a crucial branch. It was the only thing we used to exist in that area,” he said. Mbatha said the theft had a knock-on effect on the rest of the business, which he was forced to shut down due to spending a lot of time and money trying to recover the mobile kitchen.
“Shock, sadness, disappointment and every other term you can use cannot describe the feeling I got when I lost the one thing that was the breadwinner not only for me but for my employees,” he said. “I had to let them all go because there was no way I could sustain their jobs. I used a lot of money trying to recover it, but it is not helping, so I’m trying to move forward because life goes on.”Mbatha is now exploring other avenues to earn a living and recover from the setback. “I am hoping to secure another one but so far the efforts have not yielded any concrete or tangible results, but I am not giving up, as I am fighting to regain my lost client base,” he said. A case of vehicle theft was opened at the Westville Police Station.
