MANY people know Yvonne Chaka Chaka as one of Africa’s well-known songbirds, but now she is also becoming known as a woman feeding many families.
Her face and name are on display at Mama Chaka’s food kiosks serving cooked meals as part of an initiative to empower women and promote nutrition.
Mama Chaka’s is a new franchise where women in townships sell a selection of traditional food – including tripe with pap, beef heart stew and pap or tripe and samp.
The first kiosk opened in Gugulethu yesterday.
The food is prepared at a kitchen in Kraaifontein and delivered to the kiosks.
The initiative, by Chaka Chaka and Econ Food Concepts, aims to give women in townships an opportunity to start or grow their own businesses.
“This is something that is very close to my heart because we are going to empower women in townships,” Chaka Chaka said.
She said it was a simple concept because the women did not have to pay hundreds of thousands of rands they did not have to buy a franchise. They pay only a rental of R2 000 a month.
Gugulethu resident Belinda Mxesibe, 31, was the first to open her kiosk.
Mxesibe quit her job last year. She was running a business from home when she heard about Mama Chaka’s in June. She has been given a kiosk, two fridges and supplies for the first week.
Dennis Finch of Econ Food Concepts said Mxesibe’s kiosk was one of five the company had installed. Two were in Khayelitsha, one in Kraaifontein and a fourth in Langa, he said. – Staff Writer