Mzoli’s: Memorable Township Lunches

by Dominic Chadbon, 8 March 2008

If the thought of going for lunch in a dusty, crumbly township strikes you as an act of lunacy, then I suggest you stop reading now and book a table at one of the Mother City's sleek urban restaurants.

Should you possess an open mind, however, and you want to see how people really eat in Cape Town, leave the modern menu's fatuous prose behind along with the waiter's supercilious frown and head for Gugulethu, one of Cape Town's oldest black townships. And come hungry.

Standing proudly on a busy, wind-scoured corner is the centrepiece of a garish collection of semi-legal shebeens, neon-lit bars and general trading stores: Mzoli's Butchery and Grill.

Starting out in 2003 by selling meat from his garage, Mzoli Ngcawuzele (pronounced Engwa...something) realised he was onto a good thing and, after getting small business funding from the Development Bank, turned a butchery into one of Cape Town's most fashionable hangouts.

Politicians and television celebrities flock to Mzoli's, along with locals of every shape, size and colour.

Gleaming German sedans are parked alongside rusty old bangers, glamorous 'black diamonds' (members of the incipient black middle class) squeeze past tables of students, businessmen and media darlings.

School kids skip past, open-jawed at the incongruous sight of the ethnic mix while uniformed cops banter with dudes in sunglasses.

But what's it actually like to be there? First-timers will experience a little discomfort - but only because it's not quite clear what the procedure is. Well, it's easy.

First, secure yourself a rickety plastic table and chairs. Next, go to the butchery itself and choose what you want to eat from the protein-packed fridges.

The meat (and it's only meat - forget anything green and leafy) is good quality and cheap. Ask for it to be braaied (grilled) and return to your table.

Crack open a cold beer or bottle of wine (you can bring your own drinks or ask for a runner to get some from a local shebeen) and before you know it your meat arrives at your table, cooked to perfection and dripping with mouth-drooling barbecue sauce.

Great steaming lumps of sadza (mealie meal) land in front of you, along with bowls of bean salad and a spicy tomato and onion mix.

Pile up your plate, ignore the plastic spoon provided (fingers are much easier) and throw yourself headlong into a meal that makes you realise why we have the word 'feast' in our lexicon.

It's about now that you finally relax. No-one has given you more than a second glance; people are eating, laughing and flirting just like they do at any restaurant.

Waiters hover, a cook comes out for a smoke and a Sherman tank-sized mama comes over from the kitchen with a beam on her face to ask if we are enjoying the food; trying to reply with a mouth crammed with meat makes her laugh and she returns to the furnace-like barbecue pit.

It is fitting that Gugulethu means 'our hearth' in Xhosa. The homely connotations of the word are reflected in the atmosphere here.

There is no menace at Mzoli's, the murky preconceptions of township life fall away with every bite and swig at the table as an ill-defined mix of relief and familiarity flow through your clogging arteries.

Indeed, it feels safer here - slap-bang in the middle of a huge township - than the grim no-mans land of Cape Town's central train station.

I can't vouch for what happens on a steamy Saturday night (Mzoli's is also a nightclub) but things are pretty chilled this side of town.

Above all, a meal here is more than a culinary experience: it's an insight into how tens of thousands of Capetonians live, far removed from the ostentatious wealth of the fashionable beaches and malls.

It's a reminder, no, a sharp nudge in the ribs, that we live in Africa - and are part of an astonishingly multi-cultural society. If ever South Africa needed proof of its claim to be a Rainbow Nation, then look no further than Mzoli's in Gugulethu.

Mzoli's Fact File

Where is it?

The physical address is: NY 115, Shop 3, Gugulethu, Cape Town, 7751

How do I get there?

If you are driving then take the N2 highway out of town and come off at the Modderdam exit. Turn left onto Klipfontein Road, go over a railway line and carry on until you see a rather bizarre cellphone tower thinly disguised as a tree.

Turn left just before this and Mzoli's is on your left - you can't miss it.

If you don't want to drive then you can catch the 108 mini bus taxi from the city centre taxi rank (known as the deck - opposite the train station) for R8 one way; just tell the driver to stop at Mzoli's.

Alternatively, arrange a private shuttle transfer - we used Blue Sands Shuttle (082 953 2383) who use a modern air-conditioned 12-seater for R300 return.

Mzoli's phone number?

Telephone +27 (0)21 638 1355

Mobile +27 (0)78 606 7405

What will it cost?

Around R40 - excluding drinks - per person if you go in a large group. You can buy basic drinks (beers, ciders, soft drinks) from the various shops or shebeens next door.

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