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The young entrepreneur from Daveyton is proving that creativity and drive can carve out success, even against the toughest odds.
Business owner Louis Nguila Khoza runs a virtual butchery that delivers cuts to clients all over Daveyton. He is also a a fashion designer. Picture: Hein Kaiser
A few minutes into a chinwag with Louis Nguila Khoza is enough to realise that his ambition far outweighs the challenges of any circumstance.
Then, seeing his work and passion kicks any doubt of his talent into touch.
This 23-year-old Daveytonian knows where he’s going and while life’s been a somewhat rough ride, he’s tackled it with tenacity, grit, and an unshakable will to go from nowhere to everywhere.
Khoza runs two businesses. He’s got a meat business called La’ Tjonzo Republica. It’s a virtual butchery that delivers cuts to clients in Daveyton.
He has partnered with his mom and presently informally employs six people.
At an extreme opposite, Khoza’s also a fashion designer and under the brand Caution Control Club Entertainment, creates funky garments for his clients all over the province.
In addition, he’s got a side hustle or two which include modelling and hosting musical events.
“It’s all in aid of my purpose,” he said. “It funds my passion in life; creating art. That’s what I want to do. It’s an expensive game but that is why I am working hard to fund it.”
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He’s inspired mainly by Jean-Michel Basquiat, an American artist from the ’80s who was a leading voice in the neoexpressionist movement of the era.
“His work is like poetry. You see what you need to see in it,” Khoza said. But his influences are not limited.
“Even US President Donald Trump influences me; not the politics, but the way he uses power. Art is influence. It is the power to shift how people see themselves. It’s not just about creating something beautiful, it’s about helping people feel something real.”
It wasn’t always his passion. Art came later in life. As a kid, soccer had his attention. Only in the final years of high school did something change gears for him.
“Grade 11 and 12, I started feeling more drawn to music, to visual expression. But really, it is drawing and sewing that stuck,” he said. “That is where my heart is.”
He learnt to sew from a neighbour. “She had old machines, showed me how to thread mine. From there, I figured it out after watching hours of YouTube tutorials. Straight lines, zigzags, just experimenting.”
The meat business started after his mom’s school transportation folded when times got tough. “She had to sell her vehicles and close the business,” he said.
His Mozambican-South African dad has a panel beating business and he is the second of five brothers.
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“We are a family of entrepreneurs. Everything is business, even art, and it’s about working hard and creating the life that you want to be able to carve out for yourself.”
He has no formal training in art, either. He creates from instinct, effort and a drive to keep learning. Still, he would not mind the structure of a proper institution when he’s got the money to do it.
“A place with real infrastructure would push me more. Daveyton is full of distractions. It is tough. But turning struggle into something meaningful is the point of art.”
Khoza is not paralysed by negativity or despair, despite his cynicism about how the economy is managed.
“Everything is taxed. Even your thoughts,” he joked, but added state funding should be funnelled into creating economic opportunity, because in townships there is a kind of glass ceiling that’s tough to break through.
“People do not always have the info or support to keep going when the going gets tough, and they just give up. But the only way to improve is to keep doing things over and over. I learnt that from art, because technique requires practice.”
He believes every form of enterprise is about creating in one way or another.
“Business is just another form of art,” he said. “Everyone is solving problems. Whether you are selling food, clothes, or an idea. It is all creation; it is all expression.”
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He called what he does, “soul service”.
“It is about the spiritual, emotional, and mental side of life. I want people to see themselves in what I create. Because the world is just a mirror. Everyone we meet is a reflection.”
For now, his big mission is to save up for a new sewing machine. Khoza said many people wait for life to happen.
It’s just not his thing. He’s determined to grind away and put in the sweat that he believes will earn him the right to success.
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