By Selloane Ntshonyane
- Mpho and Tshepo Mokete started their cow head and pap business with R1,000 and now make about R8,000 a month, but a 54% jump in meat prices is eating into everything they earn.
- Between the 10th and 20th of every month, sales drop sharply as customers run out of money. The sisters call it mampara week and plan their whole business around it.
Mpho and Tshepo Mokete know exactly when their customers go broke. Between the 10th and 20th of every month, the money dries up and so do the sales. They call it mampara week. They have built their whole business around surviving it.
The siblings came from Lesotho and set up on the streets of Gauteng selling inyama yenhloko, cow head, and pap. They started with R1,000, two small pots, a table and poles. The recipe is simple. Boil the meat with salt, serve it with pap, put spice and sauce on the side. Plates go for R50 to R100.
On good weeks they pull in R2,800. During mampara week, that drops to R1,200. Across the month, the business brings in about R8,000 between them.
But the ground keeps shifting under their feet.
A cow head cost R280 last year. It now costs R430. That is a 54% jump and it is coming straight out of their margins. They also pay R50 a week just to have stock delivered from Nancefield Hostel. The rising costs have already forced them to cut one worker loose.
Rain is another enemy. They cook outside. No fire means no food means no money.
Mpho knows exactly what losing this business would mean. She has R600 rent, R610 in school fees and a family counting on her.
“We saw that food sells quicker, so we decided to focus on inyama yenhloko and pap,” she said.
It was the right call in 2024. Holding onto it in 2026 is a different fight entirely.
Pictured above: Mpho and Tshepo Mokete selling cow heads and pap on the streets of Gauteng.
Image source: Selloane Ntshonyane
