Rita Zwane shares her rags-to-riches story

Businesswoman Rita Zwane better known as MaZwane recently launched her memoir, detailing her journey from ‘a shipping container to Busy Corner’.

Her book, Conquering The Poverty of the Mind highlights her journey of building the popular Shisanyama brand, Imbizo Shisanyama.

In a discussion with Steven Zwane, MaZwane described her rags-to-riches story which saw her having to leave her family and six-month-old child. She travelled to Johannesburg to look for new opportunities to improve the lives of her loved ones.

Growing up as the youngest child in a family of seven, she explained how her entrepreneurial spirit was guided by her mother. “This is a story I have shared many times,” she said. “At the age of five when I started going to school, my mother would give me packets of sweets and said, ‘Just sell the sweets and that will help you to have pocket money for school’. I think at that point, that’s when my mother ignited the entrepreneurial spirit in me.

MaZwane explained that when she made the trip to the City of Gold, she was about 20 years old and full of mixed emotions. “I was excited that I was heading to Johannesburg to try and make a life for myself, but at the same time, I was emotional as I had a baby to leave behind.

“On Sunday when I had to leave for Joburg, it hit me that I had left my baby, what is it that I am going to achieve, what is my motivation?

“But then I thought to myself, I want independence. Even though I did not know the word ‘legacy’ at the time, I decided I had to do it for my family and my child.”

She described how her first longing for home was triggered by having to eat smooth pap instead of the textured uputhu (crumbly maize meal) she was used to as she remembered these dishes with fondness. “I knew that I wanted to provide fellow migrants with a taste of home, with an authentic African braai experience, where they could eat in surroundings that offered style, dignity and class.”

And so Imbizo Shisanyama was born.

She admitted that when you grow up hustling, you seek out ways to solve your problems. “Being in business is not about making money. I could have gone the easy route and opened up a franchise store but that wasn’t what I wanted. I wanted to create a unique African restaurant, and I didn’t waiver in that ambition.”

MaZwane concluded, “I had to sell clothes to pay for my food. I had to solicit customers at the hairdressing salon to pay for my accommodation. Every business or economic decision we make is motivated by the problem we are trying to solve.”

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https://www.citizen.co.za/midrand-reporter/222584/greater-access-to-books-for-all-south-africans/