MANDELA SPIRIT LIVES THOUGH KHAYELITSHA WOMEN WHO RUN SOUP KITCHENS

By Lesego Ranchu.

• Around the country, unheralded and often unknown, are individuals whose efforts make a difference in the lives of the most vulnerable.
• Two such people can be found in the Cape Flats township of Khayelitsha, where they run soup kitchens for the poor and sick of their neighbourhoods.
• Despite their own hardships, Mama Nonkonzo Mlahlwa and Mama Noncedo Titi are determined to keep going.

A lasting impact in community development relies on hardworking individuals introducing initiatives that transform the lives of others.

Relying on donations and their own income, one which is a pension, two women are feeding poor and sick people in their community – living legacy of ubuntu as shown by the late South African leader and global icon, Nelson Mandela.

Mama Nonkonzo Mlahlwa (57), who is unemployed, runs the Siyolise Soup Kitchen in Harare.

Mlahlwa set up the kitchen in 2019 when she noticed the struggles of sick people with no food and of poor households in her neighbourhood.

She started the soup kitchen with her own funds, before seeking assistance. This led her to the Department of Social Development, where she received her NPO (non-profit organisation) certificate.

She then received a starter pack of rice, umngqusho and soup to feed 15 people twice a week.

The numbers rose and rose. She now feeds more than 60 people.

“I am struggling but I am determined not to fail. This is my calling. I am here to find resources to allow me to help more people” she says.

Sixty-four-year-old Mama Noncedo Titi is a pensioner who runs the Makhiwa Soup Kitchen from her home in Site B in the township.

She too has a Department of Social Development NPO certificate.

Titi has been running the soup kitchen since 2015, starting it after she discovered her oldest daughter’s health status and realised there was a need for additional nutritional food.

That was when she began to distributing vegetables to the informal settlement residents in RR Section in Khayelitsha.

Titi then decided to start the soup kitchen with four other women, who are still with her today. At times they each bring food items from their homes to feed those in need.

Titi purchased the initial stock of noodles – 20 litres at R50 each – with her grant money, which feeds about 400 people, especially children.

However, nowadays, the Athlone-based organisation Invisible Hand, assists.

Once a month, Shoprite also assists her, providing 40 loaves of bread and two buckets of soup.

Once a year, the vegetable market in Epping provides a vegetable pack consisting of potatoes, butternut, onion, cabbage and green peppers.

“We are delighted to be here and trust that we will be empowered to continue.

“The informal settlement dwellers around me are reliant of these meals,” says Mama Titi.

For the two women, it was important that various stakeholders took part in the South African Social Security Agency’s Integrated Community Registration Outreach Programme which took place in Khayelitsha on 8 July 2025.

They hope they will be assisted with equipment and food so they can continue to make an impact.