The Best BISCUIT

Sibongnkosi Msipha, aka Mama Bongi, has created a booming trade out of her chocolate chip cookies. As the business turns five this year, she reflects on the early days and how mentorship, teamwork and humility has brought her success.

- CHRISTI NORTIER

If you stroll through the leafy streets of Wynberg and follow the scent of freshly baked biscuits, you’ll be led into the warm kitchen of Sibongnkosi Msipha, the founder of Mama Bongi’s Cookies. You’ll likely recognise the chunky golden cookies, fat with chocolate chips, from social media or supermarket shelves. You’ll probably know, too, Mama Bongi’s infectious smile and her energetic eyes. Her team will be chatting and joking, working away as the radio plays.

Mama Bongi, as she prefers to be called, started her small business just before the lockdown began. In just a handful of years, her biscuits are now stocked in cafés and supermarkets across the country. She now employs two other people and is a regular speaker at talks about starting your own business. Her mentor, Julia Finnis-Bedford, remains proudly at her side as they expand the businesses offering. Is this a success story? ‘Yes’, says Bongi, ‘because it supports families.’