By Palesa Ndinisa
Tshepiso Sibisi, a 35-year-old founder and owner of Mwari Pizza House based in Kwa-Thema along with her associates, Kabelo Ngomane who is 27 years of age and Nkosinathi Zwane, a 24-year-old young man leaves the residents of Kwatsaduza amazed.
‘Mwari’, meaning the source of creation in Shona, indeed describes the essence of the restaurant as it goes above and beyond to showcase its inventiveness. The restaurant does not only sell pizza that only has typical pizza flavours, but it brings the township-touch to the Italian product. “We have always wanted our pizza to represent where we come from, so we have made it a point to add ‘kasi’ flavours. We have a kota-pizza where we add sausages and fries, atchaar-pizza and we recently came up with mogodu-pizza.
All these ingredients are not familiar in pizzas but we bring them together to make these different flavours. We still have other flavours like bacon-supreme and margarita just to name a few, however, these new flavours show our creative side and the response from people is good”, added Sibisi.
Sibisi mentions that the support she has been getting from the residents of Kwatsaduza, from when she started her business in 2018 is truly amazing. She divulges on how business has not been easy since there’s been Coronavirus and lockdown restrictions, but she is hopeful for the best. “I was into construction before I started this business but being retrenched now and again, made me realise that I have to start my own thing because unemployment is not an option. Seeing the business do well encouraged me to start a soup kitchen every Monday from 8-10am.
I believe in giving back and helping wherever I can because in a community, I am who I’m because of them”, adds Sibisi. She also highlights on how she loves working with other businesses in relation to events because it helps me to offer a helping hand. Her business associates are also business people and they have businesses on the side, Ngomane is a self-taught chef and runs his business, Zwane is part of the consulting and marketing side of the business but also runs his own business. However, they have all collaborated into making ‘Mwari Pizza House’ a success.
Sibisi reveals that her upcoming plan is to have another branch around Kwatsaduza. Her future plans include being the best take-away spot, best-selling pizza restaurant and franchises all over the world and she wants to help the community by creating employment opportunities for the youth.
