E N D A W E N I - Music Lounge And Butchery - The It Place In Mdantsane

The Endaweni Music Lounge and Butchery is a place that overlooks town.

It is the In-Place in Mdantsane at the moment. If you want to go out and have fun this is the place you should be heading for.

It is one of the few private double story buildings in Mdantsane

From the balcony on the upper level where you can have your drinks you can overlook the town and observe the street life below.

The two friends, African brothers and business partners Nceba and Thandile had a brilliant business idea approximately one and a half year ago. And their idea has paid out already!

Close Friends and Business Partners Thandile(left) and Nceba Kwakweni (right)

Nceba Kwakweni said to us that he is shy and that this is the first interview ever he is doing. But between you and me, I can tell you, that we could not find the shyness in him that he was talking about. In fact we had a lot of fun with him and his friend Thandile!

"Most of the people from the township drive to town if they want to be entertained and go out. There was no place here in Mdantsane, where people could meet, socialize and be entertained", says Nceba Kwakweni.

"So we decided let us build something here, so that the people stay in the township and find their entertainment here, instead of driving 25 minutes to town to go to a club".

Nceba Kwakweni Owner of Endaweni

As it was said so it was done. Endaweni is today an establishement that entertains people who come as far as from Jo'burg. The word has spread that Endaweni is a place where you can really chill out and have fun in township style.

Thandile

"We have become what you could call an International Lounge", says Nceba, laughing. 

Building a successful business together

The business has become so successful that the two are building now a VIP lounge in the back.

Inside The Lounge

"The lounge has style and a certain class but we have not forgotten that we are in a township" says Thandile," we have a dress code but we are flexible with it. We allow shorts if they are stylish but we do not allow cut-off jeans and we do not like caps too much".

Lounging At Endaweni

 

"From eight to ten we are a lounge, from ten to twelve we have become a club and the rest of the night we are really a club", explains Nceba Kwakweni

DJ'ing equipment

We make music here, we get DJ's in to entertain our guests and this is a very great attraction" Thandile adds to the conversation, we get DJ's from Mdantsane. There is a lot of talent here"

We are getting the feeling. Endaweni is a place where you can chill out in a very friendly and warm atmosphere, watch people from the balcony without been watched.....

The street below is busy at all times

Well, sometimes not been seen does not work......

It a place with a great future and enormous potential. Thandile and Nceba have created an African success story, a Mdantsane success story!  

Check in on The Mdantsane Way tomorrow when Nceba Kwakweni shares with us his personal view on doing business,building a VIP lounge and having success in Mdantsane.

You should not miss a close up on his open air restaurant in the back!

Precision Cut

The picture was taken at the Indian Plaza in North End. The first inhabitants who came to live in Mdantsane were forcefully removed by the then Department of Bantu education under the Apartheid Regime from two areas in East London called the East Bank and North End and re-settled in Mdantsane.

Bhele's Little Angels in Mdantsane

The Mdantsane Way Online Magazine can also be seen as a small scale development project with a very personal touch. One of our objectives is to introduce our readers to the life and environment of this large township, that is not covered by main stream media. 

Many of the people who contribute voluntarily to the magazine have been involved in some sort of humanitarian work before in their life. And some of us have come to the conclusion, that large development organization and bilateral collaborations between countries and continents are not the best instrument to drive development on the grass root level.

In Mdantsane live thousands and thousands of little angels. Children who will have it harder in life to advance, simply because of the fact that they have been born into living conditions much less favorable than those of other children in more a developed and affluent environment.

This fact makes parents even work harder to earn money to send their kids into a school or give them the necessary pre-school education. Most South Africans experience what we call the battle for education. In fact most Africans all over the continent experience this.

Bhele's Little Angels is a creche and kindergarten situated in an informal settlement of Mdantsane offering educare, and after-school care in a Christian environment. Pre-school education is so important because the child's mind is trained and formed at a very early age, preparing him for school and making it easier for the child to learn. The entire socialisation process of a child depends on what type information he or she had been exposed to in his first five years.

We are publishing detailed stories about projects and institutions on this site, not only to allow for a personal view on a reality, that is for many people strange and unknown, but also to introduce people to personal development opportunities as well. 

Our message is if you want to help, or let us rather say get involved, there will be a way. Everybody who wants to help can help. There are so many ways to get involved.

This is a message to our readers that if you see a project you want to get involved with, we can facilitate the contact, but we will not get involved as a development agent.  It is up to you to develop a personal realtionship with the organization or the person.

If you want to sponsor books, money, toys - you can. If you want to help develop the career of a future musician, artist or poet you can.  It does not matter if you are in the Philippines, in Russia or in Brazil.

If you do have an idea let us know!

Where Do You Go For Lunch In Mdantsane - The Red Star

Sure, you can go the the Mdantsane City Mall for lunch and sit at one of the many franchises like Wimpy, Debonairs, Chicken Licken  and some other known fast food chains. But long time before the mall opened in Mdantsane The Red Star has been there. The Red Star is a legendary place today, known for its huge vetkoek's and other home cooked meals. 

 

The Red Star is only a couple of hundred meters away from the Mdantsane City Mall but it is still going strong. - probably because the food  really tastes good.

There is more than one cook preparing the Russians, bread rolls, cooked chicken and the in Mdantsane well known vetkoek's.

 The doves also find their fair share just around the corner.

The owner Mzamo is the manager of a soccer club as well and he promised us an interview and a good look into his kitchen the next time.

We Need Rain - The Inkwenkewzi High School Environmental Youth Club At Work in Mdantsane

Youth clubs can play an important role in the Mdantsane Commuity.

Prince, a member of the environmental youth club at Inkwenkwezi

Melikaya Buti is a Xhosa, but he grew up in the Gugulethu township in the Western Cape. He came back to the Eastern Cape a couple of years ago and holds now the position of a project manager for education and training at WESSA. Very soon he will start a Master's degree.

" My childhood in Gugulethu was similar to the way the kids live here in Mdantsane. I know very well what it means to grow up in a township environment. I was a member of several youth clubs when I was a child. It helped me stay on track and keep away from destructive activities, Meli says." 

 

He is in the position today to give back to the community. He does it with his full heart and a considerable amount of passion. Meli coaches the environmental youth club at the Inkwenkwezi High School in NU 6, an organisation consisting entirely of volunteers.

Melikaya Buti

"The message, that I want to bring across to the young people, is that if you take care of the environment and minimize your footprints, that you leave on the environment, you do it for yourself and for your own future. I always tell the volunteers, you do not do it for me, for the government or for Mdantsane. You do it for yourself and for your future. Nobody is forced to work with me. The earth is our future and we have to take care of it as we take care of our families".

To recognize the interdependency between man and the earth is not always easy to understand for the communities that have been deprived and been considered under-privileged for many years.

TheYouth Club

"The best point to start is to educate the youth about environmental issues and waste management. Waste is the biggest environmental problem in Mdantsane,' says Meli

The environmental youth club undertakes a wide variety of activities on the school ground. The vision of the club is that  through their actions and their example other young people from the school will join force with them.

Theresa, The German volunteer and Mr Amoah, the school principal watching the interview with Meli

  Melikhaya says that the never-ending support of the school's Principal Mr.Amoah is of great value to the  club. The support of the other teaches is essential. They have to be implicated in the process because they are the direct link to the children. Meli visits the school once a week, sometimes even less, but the teachers have the capacity to guide the children and encourage them to continue with their activities.

The WALL OF FAME in the Youth Club's Cottage

A clear structure and a set of rules have been established for the club. The club meets regularly in what is called "The Cottage" to discuss their activities and their plan of action. The Wall Of Fame shows a picture of each member.

The German Volunteers Jonas and Theresa

And we especially love the cross-cultural component of this project. The German Volunteers live in Mdantsane with guest families and their role is to facilitate the activities of the environmental youth club.

The club's rules 

Some volunteers have even used more drastic measures to clarify what is allowed and what is not inside the cottage............

 

Burning environmental issues have been recognized by these young South-Africans

and the cottage is a place of creativity.

 

 

One of the first activities, that Theresa and Jonas, the German Volunteers started with the volunteers was to paint a beautiful wall mural on one of  the school's buildings.

Seen from a distance you have to look twice to see where nature ends and the mural starts!

 

The Principal

Theresa and Jonas in front of the mural

Theresa and Jonas will still stay several month in Mdantsane. We are looking forward to see more projects of the club.

"It was not totally easy in the beginning Theresa" says,"because the life here is very different from Germany but now we have adapted to the Mdantsane way of life".

Bruce Lee showing us a lemon tree planted by the club

South Africa proudly presents! And may be others will get inspired by the clubs vibe and join!