The booming business of selling fat cakes or amagwinya has become a survival method for many citizens. A number of people lost their jobs, and some are determined to survive the harsh realities of poverty.
Despite the high prices of oil and cake flower, businesses continue to show resilience in the challenging economic environment.
38-year-old, Makoa Lecheche travelled to Kimberley to survive economic hardships. The father of two has been in the fatcake business for more than a decade. Despite South Africa facing higher inflation and rising food prices, Lecheche’s business is thriving.
“Before I found this place I used to go to people in their work places, taxi ranks to sell my homemade fatcakes. By God’s grace I realized this is what I wanted to do to make a living. My children can go to school, they have bread on the table and I can buy anything I want with this business.”
Palesa Mantsi, a mother of three, lost her job due to COVID-19. This led her to contemplate starting her own fatcake business. And since establishing Palesa Take Aways, she has never looked back.
“The business is still slow. It is on and off but we are still going on, it’s slow because of the prices, the prices they going up because the cake flour now is R164.”
Amagwinya, as the favourite street food and home breakfast is known, also had to succumb to the higher inflation rate, after many years of staying stable at R1 each.
Due to the rising input costs, the fat cakes are now sold for R2 each.
“The establishment is very clean and the ladies really do take care in preparing this amagwinya so it’s not the first time buying this even sephatlo’s are very well.”
Despite the rising food prices in South Africa the fat cake business still stands firm.
