Cindy Simelane has been crowned the 2016 City of Johannesburg Healthy Kota Competition champion.
Simelane was crowned at this year’s finals held at the Pimville Skills Centre this past weekend. Six contestants were up against each other in the battle to make the healthiest, tastiest and most nutritious kota in town.
At stake was a grand prize of R25000 which Simelane took all. The competition is part of the City of Joburg’s Go Jozi Healthy Lifestyle Programme, initiated by the mayor Parks Tau.
It is aimed at promoting healthy living amongst the people of Joburg through eating healthy and exercising regularly.
Through this programme, informal food traders in the township are encouraged to prepare healthy menus for their customers.
The mayor and the city believe that it can help prevent the increase in conditions such as diabetes, obesity and high blood pressure.
This year’s winner impressed judges with a variety of meats she used in her kota to make it not only mouth watering but healthy too.
Even though Simelane’s kota impressed for being healthy and delicious, she went an extra mile by making sure that it is affordable to her customers by introducing different options.
“I’ve been making kotas for five years. Being in an environment with people who share my passion was such a great experience and this is a very happy moment for me,” said Simelane.
She said the competition was very tough and sometimes she was not even sure what she was doing but she didn’t give up because a kota is her passion. The prize money will go toward improving Simalane’s kota business and make it more healthy and reach more people.
“I cannot thank the city enough for giving us the opportunity to showcase what we do best and encourage us to give our customers more healthy choices,” said Simelane.
Phila Noah had the toughest job of judging the competition. He said what made it more difficult for him was that all contestants showed great potential and did their best.
“The judging was not only about today’s end product. We were looking at how the contestants had performed throughout the different stages of the competition. Simelane’s kota was the most nutritious, the presentation was appetising and the taste was excellent. The fact that she had three options to choose from was a cherry on top,” said Noah.
Member of the Mayoral Committee(MMC) for Health and Social Development Nonceba Molwele expressed her happiness about informal traders taking an interest in making healthy Kotas.
She urged residents to support healthy kota businesses so that even kids in school can start eating healthy and fight obesity.
“We want this to get to a point at which we phase out all the greasy and over-seasoned kotas. The healthy kota will ensure that people spend less time at the clinic,” said Molwelwe.
The competition does not only promote healthy eating but it equips informal food traders with business skills as well. The City of Joburg is pushing for restaurants to introduce healthy options in their menus as well.
