Nico Shai, known as Malume Nico was born and bred in the dusty streets of Rikhotso Village outside Tzaneen.
After finishing Matric, he began to look for employment opportunities, like any other person who comes from a disadvantaged background. He tried knocking on the doors of various companies in the Tzaneen region – without success.
One day, Malume Nico sat with his friends and thought about what they could do, as they were unable to continue their studies after completing matric.
With his last R400 and a home chips maker machine, that was the birth of his brain child ‘The Kota The Mmmh’
In 2016, he took the machine and got a place in his community where he started making chips, selling Vianas and Russians.
Like any other small business, the struggle was there from the beginning. Even a child start by crawling before walking, those stages helps to shape up a person. Business was not as smooth as one might think, sometimes he would only sell 1 kota all day long. But because of his personal attitude of never giving up, he received support from various sources that helped him build the brand he is today.
While he was still trying to make a breakthrough with the business, he was spiritually attacked several times and almost struck by lightning three times. Malume Nico was also accused by various people who tried to discredit his business, life was not that easy for him.
Malume Nico is a breadwinner and sometimes people bought takeaways on credit and never paid. He lived from hand to mouth and used the money from his business to support the family.
He currently has 2 full-time and 5 part-time employees working in his kitchen. The opening hours are from 7:30 to 19:00 (Monday to Saturday). On Sundays, they open from 12:00 to 19:00. ‘The Kota The Mmmh’ menu includes moctail, desert, milkshake, dagwood, burger, hot dog, kota, juice and cold drinks.
MALUME NICO’S ADVICE:
“Don’t be afraid to start something, don’t be afraid to start whatever comes into your mind, start it. God has invested that in your life. Go and do it! One day you will make it blackchild.
“A journey of million steps begins with just a single step. Youth must take the step and make it count, let’s not be numbers in the history books, but be something valuable to the communities we live in.
“If countries like China can do it, why not us South Africans. We can do it. We can start producing our very own things. Once you start something, never look back, forward you go. Let’s not look more into the profit of the business, though the aim for you to be in business is to make profit. Start small and grow, we living in a world of many possibilities.” Concludes Malume Nico.
Malume Nico pleads with the community for support and grow the brand to a level where they can start opening branches or franchise that will enable them to create more employment opportunities for locals.
Malume Nico’s business is growing substantially, judging by looking at where it was before and where it is now. They are trying their best to invest the profits they make back to the business. This can be seen when you visit their Kitchen at Mavele Village opposite to Meadowbank Cafe and Twalatsa, the place has been given a makeup.
Big ups Malume Nico.
