He may wow his guests with the impeccable literary and business etiquette credentials he’s endowed with, but Jambo Africa Online’s Publisher, SAUL MOLOBI, has to compensate for his normal culinary expertise by adding the Makhamisa Foods’ relish range into his cooking for them not to leave anything on their plates…
Makhamisa Foods was established in 2016 by black industrialist, Terence Pokane Leluma, and his wife, Phumzile Portia Nkomo-Leluma. It specialises in the manufacturing of hot and cold sauces such as jalapeno and pickled vegetable. Although the company has adopted a holistic monolithic branding technique, “Makhamisa”, for its product line, there’s a level of differentiation to distinguish each of their offerings for better usability and adoption by its consumers.
“We have developed unique formulas and recipes which we have created for each product in our portfolio to appeal to every consumer’s unique senses,” says the company’s Managing Director, Terence, matter-of-factly. Such approach is scientific because as I sampled his products throughout the week, they made everything clearer that I have learned from Martin Lindstrom, a world-renowned neuro-marketing scientist, when he argues in his seminal book, “Brand Sense”, that a successful brand has to appeal to all five senses: taste; sight; smell; touch; and even hearing.
The creation of the Makhamisa products were inspired by the South African food heritage and will introduce the African taste to the world. I have found the product line transforming my mouth into a stage hosting an orchestra that was creating a symphony of tastes that were uniquely African taste: complex and yet simple; complex and yet harmonious: simple but with generous doses of sophistication; simple and not simplistic; in short, JUST DEVINE!
Customers are now able to purchase the Makhamisa relish range from two of the major retailers in South Africa – namely, Pick n Pay and Checkers stores nationwide.
Located in Edenvale, east of Johannesburg, Makhamisa Foods is situated on a 12 000 square metre facility that has been tailor-built for its business operations, and installed with new industrial equipment and latest technology in food processing and manufacturing.
In 2019, the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) assisted Makhamisa Foods with a R38 million capital injection to assist the brand in building its manufacturing site and a further R10 million in July 2021 after being adversely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. The R19 million capital injection was meant to assist the brand to meet the demanding needs of its client portfolio – namely, Famous Brands (that own many restaurant brands), Bidfood, Empact, Shoprite-Checkers and Pick n Pay.
“I am extremely optimistic about the future of the brand, thrilled and proud of the work that my team and I have managed to achieve thus far,” Terence says with a tinge of confidence spiced with his signature humility. “The FMCG industry in SA is valued at approximately R530 billion and the condiment sauces market equates to R11,2 billion and our target is to hit a R500 million mark, 5% in terms of the market share by 2024.”
What’s in a name?
Makhamisa is a coinage from the isiZulu language – which means “to open a mouth”. This analogy basically means what you’ll be eating is breathtaking, astonishing or awe-inspiring in quality, so as to take one’s breath away as it is hot from the chillies. This means what you’re having is spectacular, magnificent or extremely wonderful.
“Upon visiting my girlfriend’s dad house in Diepkloof, Soweto, he welcomed me with a delicious meal made up of pap, braai meat and a very tasty relish. When I asked him what that relish was called and made up of, he responded that it contained mainly green chilli and jalapeños. He told me that the relish was called “Makhamisa” because it causes one to open their mouth in awe as a reaction to the spiciness or heat level brought about by capsicum in the green chilli and jalapeño,” says Leluma
Saucy product names
Makhamisa has tapped into the street culture by borrowing the lingo to name its product line. Commonly known as Tsotsitaal, s’qamtho for initiated, is a street lingo derived from a cacophony of mixed languages mainly spoken primarily in townships of the Gauteng City Region, but also in other agglomerations all over South Africa. Tsotsi is a Sesotho, Sepedi or Setswana slang word for a “thug” or “robber” or “criminal”, possibly from the verb “ho lotsa” “to sharpen”, whose meaning has been modified in contemporary times to include “to con“; or from the tsetse fly, “as the language was first known as Flytaal, although flaai also means ‘cool’ or ‘street smart’. The word taal as an Afrikaans word meaning ‘language’.” A tsotsitaal is a permanent work of language-mix, language-switch and coinage of terms. To borrow from tsotsitaal, the company ingeniously named their product “Ncaa” – which mean things are great!
The language is the primary lyrical delivery mode of kwaito music and the language does creep seamlessly into conversations on such youth radio stations as YFM and Metro FM and television productions as Zola 7 to spice up the programming and to buy them legitimacy.
Beyond this, Makhamisa also borrowed from the popular onomatopoeia to give names to some of their product brands. By definition, onomatopoeia is “the process of creating a word that phonetically imitates, resembles, or suggests the sound that it describes.” These include animal noises such as oink, meow (or miaow), roar, and chirp. The company has named one of their products Tjerr, which is derived from the sound one makes in disbelief. In Proto-Albanian linguistics the word “tjerr” is derived “terka” which means twist or spin. Indeed, the product’s taste will make you find yourself inadvertently shaking your body dancing to an imaginary song playing in your ears.
Another ingenious name is “Ayeye” – which is also a slang that means you’re in trouble. Then here’s “Nyana” – which is a suffix that could be attached to the corporate brand to read “Makhamisanyana”. Though “nyana” means smaller, symbolically it emotionally evokes affection as in “mothonyana wa me” – though literally means “my small person”, symbolically it mean, “my person (that I so much adore or love)”.
This is common in our communities as one of South Africa’s jazz giants, Selaelo Selota, was recently involved in a legal spat with a potato chips company, Simba, over the latter’s alleged infringement of the former’s intellectual property rights over the onomatopoeia, Thrrr pha, which he has first used in his iconic song and then went further to register it as a trade mark.
Similarly, our people have since nicknamed VW Gti “Vrrr Pha!” because of its signature sound – almost easily identifiable as the iconic sound of Harley Davidson.
Indeed, following Martin Lindstrom’s formula, Makhamisa Foods have a divine taste; they make your dish look divine; they enhance the touch of the meal on your buds to be divine; the smell of the meal is divine; and indeed the music they evoke in your ears becomes divine.
As another brand theorist, Martin Roll, says iconic brands tell stories that resonate with their stakeholders, including customers, and touch their lives in some way that could be defined by a single word such as freedom (for Harley Davidson); power (BMW); design (Apple); elegance (Dior); imagination (Lego); beauty(Estee Lauder); and safety (Volvo); I believe Makhamisa Foods’ brand promise is encapsulated in one word: DIVINE.