Online Reporter
Bruce Ndlovu, Sunday Life Reporter
WHEN South African law enforcement agencies intensified their crackdown on foreigners working in restaurants in Mzansi (South Africa) last year, Chef Thulani Sibanda made up his mind.
It was time to return home.
Sibanda, whose own identity papers and work permits were in order, had been contemplating a return home for a while, but in January 2024, his decision was finally made.
He had watched as police, taking the lead from some of South Africa’s more incendiary politicians, turned restaurants and other eateries inside out, hunting down foreigners who are believed to provide the main labour force for such establishments.
As a chef overseeing several restaurants that are part of a chain in Mzansi, Sibanda felt it was now time to retrace his footsteps.
What had started as a faint call for him to return home was now a loud chorus he could not ignore. Sibanda, crowned Randburg’s seafood master by Restaurant Guru in 2023, decided that he would open his own place and take his Zimbabwean staff with him.
“When the police started to raid restaurants in South Africa, I felt a lot of pressure. Our workers, who were mainly foreigners, were greatly harassed and hassled and in the end, I was not the only one with the desire to go back home.
“All in all, I brought back eight people from South Africa, including our sushi man. This has made my life a bit easier because we are all a bit more familiar with each other and they are teaching the Zimbabwean staffers and showing them how I want my things done,” he said.
Returning to Zimbabwe was not easy for Sibanda originally from Filabusi in Matabeleland South Province.
He had left the country with no qualifications as a 17-year-old in 1999 with no real passions he was eager to pursue.
By chance, he found himself in the kitchen and fell in love with the aromas and flavours he encountered among the pots and pans.
“When you leave home and go outside the country, especially for us who are not educated, you do what you can to make money and earn a living. I do not have any qualifications, so it is just me. When I got to South Africa and started working with people who make food, I thought this was something that I would like to do as well and maybe one day, open my own place,” he said.
After establishing a rapport with a fellow worker, a white South African national, Sibanda had his first taste of proper leadership and responsibility.
As time went on, he wanted more.
“I left Zimbabwe when I was 17. At the time, the situation was not great for me, so I decided to try my luck in South Africa. I worked at Ocean Basket and I rose through the various branches until I worked at the head office.
“While I was working there, I got close to a white guy and as our relationship grew, he confided to me that he wanted to sell his house and all his cars so he could start a restaurant.
“He did exactly that and Mozambique restaurant was born. I am one of the founders of that business,” he said.
Perhaps Sibanda would not have returned home if he felt he was getting a fair shake in Mzansi.
After helping a popular restaurant chain get off the ground and become a national and regional phenomenon, the chef, a specialist in Mozambican cuisine, found himself falling short of his own ambitions.
He needed a place he could call his own and home seemed to be the one place he felt he could anchor his roots.
“My boss did not believe that I was leaving. We had opened more than 10 restaurants and I had been an integral part of that.
“However, I felt that it was now the right time to leave because they had promised to give me shares in the company and they had not delivered. I kept on waiting and nothing was happening, so I decided to do my own thing. I decided to come back home last year,” he said.
Last Saturday, Sibanda officially opened his joint, Xai Xai, at Ascot Shopping Centre.
However, the place had already been operating for a few months from a much smaller space as Sibanda gauged his prospects.
As word spread about his delectable Mozambican cuisine, the chef has felt vindicated about his decision to return home, something those close to him thought he would never do.
“In the past, I never used to stay long in Zimbabwe. I would drive down here and do what I needed to do and return to my base in South Africa. A lot of people still cannot believe that I went through with this and that I now stay in Zimbabwe.
“My South African work permits are still there and I own property in that country, but sometime in January, something just hit me and I decided that I wanted to go back home,” he said.
As he begins to hit his stride, Sibanda said he was eager to empower other entrepreneurs in the country, although he was careful not to spread himself too thin by taking on too much responsibility.
“I was having a conversation with one of the city fathers recently and he suggested that I should perhaps secure a way to deliver my food to customers seeking takeaways, but I do not want to do that.
“I do not want to produce my own chickens, as well, because I am not a farmer. I am a chef.
“I do not want to raise my own livestock, slaughter and then deliver it to my chefs to braai. I would like to have agreements with people who do all those other things so that we are all empowered,” he said.
Peter Tanyanyiwa