Nyoni’s Kraal

The lights were so powerful, they were literally blinding. So nobody looked at them. But they were what brought the squid close to the surface and within reach of the boat’s thousands of deadly hooks. From sundown to sun-up, the crew; Taiwanese, South African and Philipino, would work like demons to harvest the thousands of squid that swam to the surface.

Frostbite

Shifts in the cold room, where the calamari was stored before being shipped to circling container ships, were 12 hours long. Many people lost fingers; one of Colin’s friends lost most of them. Conditions were beyond primitive. Some people died at sea. South African staff were once assaulted by the captain and his crew. No-one knew why. Almost nobody did more than one six-month shift. Colin did three.

Born in Gugulethu township, after he couldn’t stick out the squid-boat job any more, Colin took a job as a restaurant cleaner. After what he’d experienced on the boats, the routine of running a restaurant was a piece of cake. Within six months, Colin was supervising the grillers, cooks and sundry staff who had been in the restaurant for years.

Working his way through the ranks, a few years later Colin became the operations manager of a franchise business. “I was good at selling franchises, and I was good at dealing with the operational issues facing franchisees. But I wasn’t comfortable. Franchising isn’t always the recipe for success it’s supposed to be,” says Colin. “I knew I had to get out and implement the business plan I’d been working on for 10 years already.”

Sheep’s head for dinner

In November 2006, that business plan was turned into Nyoni’s Kraal. A restaurant in funky Long Street in downtown Cape Town, the idea behind the restaurant was to simply celebrate the best of South African culture and cuisine. Adventurous tourists can enjoy a “Smiley” – a half-sheep’s head as the main course. Or they can enjoy dishes which they would expect to find at home – probably with Nyoni Kraal’s particular talent for fusing cultures from around the world into dishes you might not believe possible.

Nyoni’s Kraal is funky, cool and authentically African but by no means overwhelming. “The restaurant itself makes a statement,” explains Colin. “The food is different but everyone seems to love it. The idea is to make people go ‘wow’ ”

With a spaza shop, wine cellar, “shebeen” and various eating areas on two levels that can seat more than 300 at a push, plus live entertainment on weekends, Nyoni’s Kraal is one new restaurant (it is now in its third year) that is bearing up under the global meltdown. “Sure, numbers are down. About 40 percent of the tour groups I was expecting haven’t made it to my restaurant. Last year was bad but I’m pretty confident that 2009 will be better.”

Coming to the party

TEP, Colin says, has “really come to the party”. The assistance they give, he adds, goes beyond just financial support to small and medium business. He then launches into the benefits of being a TEP partner: networking, help with many of the mundane but important aspects of running a tourism-oriented business: business cards, flyers.

“The new TEP is a lot more focussed on ensuring that small and new businesses really succeed. They are very, very focused. I’m involved in the cluster programme and I believe that it will be very good for all us. The mentoring I receive, and the training I’ve had, are extremely useful.”

Colin Nyoni’s journey from the Taiwanese squid boats to ownership of one of Cape Town’s signature restaurants is a long one, one that bears testimony to the fact that, in the new South Africa –with the right attitude – almost anything is possible.