Chalk Coffee Society: The friendship that brought coffee to Kayamandi

A love for coffee and community inspired two friends to open the first coffee shop in Kayamandi. Arleen Stone spoke to the owners of AmaZink, Kayamandi’s township theatre, and its new coffee shop, Chalk.

 

The narrow, steep streets of Kayamandi are bristling with children, dogs and street stalls as the Saturday morning sun seeps through the mist that covers Kayamandi’s hills. The sound of coffee grinders and Mango Groove trickle from the corner of Masitandane and Hani Street.

You are welcomed at the doors of AmaZink not only by the large “Wamkelekile” painted on the building, but also the aroma of freshly ground coffee beans and the elated smiles of the owners of the first coffee shop in this informal settlement.

Chalk Coffee Society (Chalk), christened after the township slang for a R20 note, and the highest price for their coffee, is the melting pot of two friends Markus Coetsee (33) and Odwa Nomavuka’s (30) love for coffee and the local community.

After the two entrepreneurs met in 2013 at a church in Stellenbosch, it was not long before they and their wives, Celeste Coetsee (30) and Alex Nomavuka (30), all became close friends.

By day Markus and Celeste Coetsee work as respectively a Chief Financial Officer for Fancam, a technological company, and a part-time designer at a media company, Spoken Studio.

Odwa Nomavuka was born and grew up in Kayamandi. During the week he spends most of his time at AmaZink and Chalk, but also lends himself as a freelance photographer and videographer. His wife, Alex, is the co-founder of Her Voice, a support group for mothers and soon-to-be-mothers in Kayamandi.

Although they spend their time differently during the week, the gang is always present at the lively social hub over the weekend during the live shows on Friday evenings and to keep the coffee shop up and going.

Nomavuka and his wife, originally from the USA, have been involved in community projects in Kayamandi for nearly a decade and met through an art and film program. Despite sceptical looks from their communities due to their biracial relationship, the two fell in love and got married and are the proud parents of two girls, Likitha (3) and Nonina (1). It was during their wedding in the USA that the friendship between Odwa and Markus cemented.

Although the Coetsees were invited to the Nomavuka wedding, neither Odwa nor Alex thought their new acquaintances would go through the effort of flying overseas for the wedding. But they did and with Nomavuka’s sister being unable to make the wedding, they were the only other South Africans in attendance.

“After that I could call them family,” says Nomavuka.

And so this group of friends became involved with AmaZink, which was already established in 2010, and took over from Jan and Karen Viviers at the end on last year.

“The initial goals were to create a positive township experience for people who had never visited one before and to create something from which the community could benefit,” says Coetsee.

Today they continue to offer regular art and music shows and workshops for local children.

 

“We want to create a safe space where local residents and visitors can meet and celebrate life,” explains Coetsee.

Nomavuka, who sees himself as the vision driver behind AmaZink, says that from the start the goal was for Chalk to be a bridge between the nearby communities surrounding Stellenbosch.

“Music and art takes away that whole thing of ‘I’m black, you’re white’. To share art on the stage makes you forget about that,” he says. “Markus’s love for coffee and our [his and Alex’s] love for art and the community is the basis of AmaZink and Chalk,” explains Nomavuka.

Coetsee says they never considered any other community but Kayamandi and always wanted to invest and give back to this community.

“Odwa and I have dreamt of a coffee shop in the township since 2014. A place that could add value to the community and that could bring coffee to a whole new market.”

Chalk is currently open on Mondays and Wednesdays from 07:00-16:00 and on Saturdays and some Sundays from 07:00-12:00, but Nomavuka and Coetsee hope to have its doors open daily in the future.

“We want to serve the community as well as the tourist and residents of Stellenbosch through art as a common factor,” says Coetsee.

“We want to see people off with a smile on their faces, a skip in their step and the realisation that their preconceived ideas of a township are usually wrong.”

They particularly want to focus on creating a platform for young artists and where locally produced products can be sold.

“We want to offer them education and development and put them in the position to be able to give back to their community,” explains Coetsee.

Although Coetsee and Nomavuka focus on creating change in the greater community, they have already knowingly or unknowingly touched the lives of many local residents.

These two friends say they want to send their young employee Yandisa Lupondo (20), a local resident and aspiring hip-hop musician, for a proper barista course so that he can become a certified barista. The quiet Lupondo is one of the countless children from this community whose life Nomavuka has influenced.

AmaZink and Chalk also gave their current chef, Nkosinathi Magadlela (36), the chance to showcase his unique take on traditional South African food which is served during their live shows on Friday evenings and on weekend mornings.

“I enjoy it here because they let me do my own thing and try new ideas,” said Magadlela.

A local resident and manager of the Madiba Supermarket across the street from AmaZink, Michael Lopisa (21), says although the coffee shop has not been open for long, it already attracts a lot of people. Nomavuka and Coetsee regularly buy eggs and milk from this local shop.

The Valdez family, Ricky (32), Tiffany (31), and their three children Amos (7), Zeke (3), and Lucia (5), are an American missionary family who moved to South Africa and are regulars at the coffee shop.

“A massive advantage of Chalk is the child-friendly and fenced play area,” said Ricky Valdez.

 

 

The co-director of the Kayamandi Park Run, Gugulethu Makhathini (32), also talks about how not only the community but also park runners have benefited from Chalk.

“Other Park Runs usually have local coffee shops where the organisers and runners can meet up afterwards. We were looking for a place in Kayamandi because people come from far away to partake in our parkrun, but a lot of them wouldn’t necessarily have gone into Kayamandi otherwise,” explains Makhathini.

“It’s a place where people of different races can come together and feel at home. They are such warm people. That is why [Chalk] is unique.”

Coetsee feels it is exactly this business model that makes it possible for them to expand to other townships in the future. They also hope to open other branches in nearby communities.

 

“It can play a role in tackling economic inequality and if it is always from a place of reconciliation and positive change, it can have a massive effect on the separation that we still see in our country,” he said.