Peri-peri patrons Nando's diners enjoy a side order of art

On a weekday lunchtime, the Nando's restaurant in Maponya Mall in Soweto, a sprawling former black township on Johannesburg's outskirts, was busy with couples, white-collar workers, and older women dining alone. Behind them, a vivid graffiti portrait of a young black woman filled the wall.

- Rachel Savage

The mural, by the Cape Town artist Kilmany-Jo Liversage, is part of one of the largest private art collections in the world and, its curators believe, potentially the largest on public display.

Nando's has been buying South African art to display in its peri-peri chicken restaurants globally since 2004, amassing a collection of about 32,000 pieces from 700 artists and becoming one of the country's most significant supporters of visual artists.

"They're like a parent to me," said Liversage, who has created more than 10 murals for restaurants from Chicago to Dubai and sells one or two of her bright, spray-painted portraits of women to the company every few months.