KEN AYERE, THE NIGENTREPRENEUR instead purchased a Caltex garage in Krugersdorp in the West Rand which I have been running to date. Is it difficult to operate a garage in that area? Not at all. People frequently ask me that question particularly because it is a predominantly Afrikaans neighbourhood. I have never heard of any patron driving into a garage and enquiring as to the nationality of the owner before purchasing
and tasted food from all regions, I found this unacceptable and my wife and I embarked on setting up our first restaurant at Brightwater Commons in 2003. It took us a year to draw up the menu and for the first year she ran the kitchen herself. What makes Homebaze different and why has it been successful? The Homebaze menu is truly African. This is what has enabled us to expand to Village Walk Mall in
“Illegal business does not make sense because the energy one dissipates in doing negative things is the same energy that is required to do something positive and achieve the same monetary rewards.” f Nigerians are consummate business people, then Ken Ayere is as Nigerian as can possibly be. After numerous phone calls and various attempts to meet, we finally managed to squeeze ourselves into his busy schedule and get our questions answered. Tell us about your background and how you ended up in South Africa. I was posted to Johannesburg as the Southern Africa bureau chief of the state owned News Agency of Nigeria in 1996 and worked here for about four and a half years before returning to Nigeria. During that period, I had given thought to owning a McDonald’s franchise and so I returned to South Africa in 2002 after having retired from journalism. The franchise opportunity did however not materialise and I
whatever number of litres of fuel they require. In business, as long as you are providing a good service at a fair price, people are rarely interested in finding out more. The same applies to all other business interests that my wife and I are pursuing. What are these other business interests you are pursuing? We own a 20 room guest lodge known as The Golden Rose in the Ferndale area of Randburg. We also run a chain of three Homebaze restaurants in Gauteng. These are eateries dedicated to serving African food in a respectable environment. Having travelled the world as a journalist, I noted that the establishments that serve authentic African food are almost always located in backstreets or other dodgy areas. Having traversed the continent
Sandton and to Arcadia in Pretoria. We do not garnish any of our dishes simply because when you cook at home at your African kitchen you don’t make sadza in the shape of Africa and put flowers around it. We don’t really have competitors because other restaurants that purport to deliver the African experience only do so in terms of the music and decor. They take advantage of those consumers who do not know African food by serving Mediterranean dishes and giving them names like ‘Serengeti’ or ‘Kilimanjaro’. It has not been easy though. Some of the spices we use in our food are not available at the local supermarkets and have to be imported from West African villages. In addition, it is difficult to cook some foods like chapati which we have outsourced to a Kenyan lady.
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