south africa tourism video 2020

Experience South Africa Today

• Explore Our 10 Day Curated Itinerary

Released on 12/18/2019

[Narrator] South Africa, a country so beautiful

and diverse it's always high on traveler's bucket list.

[upbeat music]

Conde Nast Traveler partnered with Africa's

premier travel specialist, Explore Inc.,

to curate the perfect itinerary for you.

There's no better place to experience animals

in their natural habitat than in South Africa's

numerous national parks or private game reserves.

Our recommendation, &Beyond Phinda.

This private game reserve is home to

several different environments, offering guests

unique animal spotting opportunities.

Spend three to four days here and you'll be sure

to see South Africa's big five, elephants,

buffaloes, rhinos, leopards, and lions.

To see how the local communities live,

and get a deeper understand for their culture and heritage,

go to a Zulu village during the day,

or experience a traditional dance under the stars at night.

Cape Town, the crown jewel of Western Cape

in South Africa, is a vibrant and beautiful city

with so much to offer.

Start your morning at a local's favorite, Aviary Cafe.

Where you must try their beetroot latte.

If you find yourself in Cape Town on a Saturday,

head over to the Neighbourgoods Market

at The Old Biscuit Mill.

Where you'll come across a variety of cuisines,

the likes of which you may have never seen

or tasted before.

Next, take a drive or a very adventurous bike ride

along Chapman's Peak for incredible views

of Hout Bay, Lion's Head, and 12 Apostles.

Bo-Kaap is a small neighborhood in the northern part

of the city, a colorful world heritage site

that boasts a long cultural history.

Then head over the Zeitz MOCAA,

the largest museum of contemporary African art in the world.

The modern and important architecture by Thomas Heatherwick

alone is worth the trip.

For dinner, we recommend heading to Salsify,

a truly inventive restaurant where Ryan Cole

turns out exquisite cuisine.

They also have one of the best sunset views in the city.

Half of the fun of Fyn is the open kitchen,

where you can watch Chef Peter Tempelhoff

create truly incredible Japanese-African fusion fare.

A short drive from Cape Town is South Africa's wine country.

Each vineyard and estate is unique.

Boschendal offers a fun relaxed experience

on their wine farm, where you can have

a real farm to fork culinary experience.

Delaire Graff, a luxury estate vineyard

where art, nature, and wine coexist.

Stay for a meal at Indochine, Chef Virgil Khan's

incredible onsite restaurant that blends

Asian cuisine with an authentic South African twist.

From national parks and private game reserves,

wine country and scenic vistas, to bustling cultural hubs

like Cape Town, Johannesburg, and Durban,

South Africa offers it all.

Right now is the best time to meet South Africa.

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Photo: South African Tourism/YouTube

New tourism ad explores SA as the ‘greatest story of them all’ [video]

A new advertisement from South African Tourism is calling on South Africans to share their stories “to be part of the greatest story of them all”.

A new advertisement from the official YouTube account of South African Tourism is touching base on the stories that come from South Africa and how it is “unlike any you’ve heard before”.

‘The Greatest Story of Them All’

The advertisement titled ‘ The Greatest Story of Them All ‘ seemingly looks at South Africa and the different stories shared among its people. It also touches base on the national lockdown and how “we should share our stories” once more as South Africa is gradually moving to lift various restrictions that were put in place due to the world’s latest health pandemic.

“ There’s something different about our soil…because of all the places humanity could have started, it chose South Africa and that is why the stories that come out of here are like no other ,” the narrator says in the video. “Our stories will take you on a tour of liberation through the streets of Soweto, a journey into the early sapien life, get you dancing to the electro beats of Kwaito, experience Xhosa culture through taste and so many more stories of the Motherland. Stories of real humans in extraordinary sites. The stories where everyone plays a part, including you.”

On YouTube South African Tourism, who is the tourism marketing arm of the South African government, also wrote:

“When we travel we stumble upon places far beyond our imagination. We set footprints on the sand and wish they could be there for eternity because these are the places that remind us of our humanity. Join us on social media and #ShareSouthAfrica to be part of the greatest stories of them all.”

TRAVEL INDUSTRY HARD-HIT

The advertisement comes after a report from Statistics South Africa showed a negative trend in the tourism sector in May this year. The local travel industry has been hard hit since early in 2020 as international visitors either cancelled or postponed their trips to South Africa due to the unfolding coronavirus problems in their own countries and concerns about the health risks posed by air travel.

This has since been exacerbated by President Cyril Ramaphosa’s declaration of a national state of disaster on Sunday 15 March.

Among the package of measures designed to reduce the spread of the virus within South Africa, are stringent travel restrictions and bans on certain foreign visitors, as well as the closure of a number of ports of entry. 

THE SOUTH AFRICAN ATTRACTION

Of course, South Africa has been a popular tourist destination with global travellers so much so that in fact, it has become a crucial sector of the economy and provides strong social and economic value to millions of locals in South Africa every year. Even with the decline in the tourism sector, a new survey showed that South Africa is one of the most popular choices when it comes to those dreaming of a post-Corona escape.

“With borders beginning to slowly open back up and the possibility of travel starting to return, we were interested to find out if travellers’ preferences have changed and how they are thinking about their next trip,” the company said after the survey was conducted in April and May 2020. “Where do they want to go? Who do they want to go with? And when is the earliest they feel comfortable travelling?”

The results show that a majority of respondents (54%) would still like to go on vacation in 2020. Interestingly, one in four travellers would depart right now if they were given the opportunity. In contrast, 46% of travellers have no desire to travel in 2020.

It was found that South Africa, New Zealand, and Canada are the three most popular destinations within the Tourlane community of travellers, followed by Costa Rica and Namibia which close the top five.

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South Africa’s Tourism Industry: Next Stop, Recovery?

By Devon Maylie

Tourism business Zulu Nomad expected 2020 to be a banner year as it prepared to launch a digital marketplace to connect small businesses in Southern Africa with international travelers. Then, COVID-19 hit.

“We’ve had to put plans on hold, but we also have to keep an eye on the future beyond COVID-19,” said Zulu Nomad founder Phaka Hlazo. “That’s what we’re also telling other small businesses so that we can come out of this.”

For most tourism businesses in South Africa—from hotels and lodges to guides and transport firms—a   global tourism shutdown has dried up revenues for the foreseeable future, though fixed costs remain. In South Africa, tourism generates 740,000 direct jobs and more than 1.5 million indirectly. Small businesses make up around 80 percent of the travel and tourism industry. Many of them are on the brink.   

Of course, South Africa’s tourism industry isn’t alone. Tourism accounts for 7.1 percent of Africa’s GDP and contributes $169 billion to the continent’s economy. The World Travel and Tourism Council estimates 100 million tourism-related jobs have already been lost globally, including nearly eight million in Africa, due to the COVID-19 crisis.

Many tourism sector businesses will not survive; others are adapting the best they can.

For example, Hlazo has delayed the launch of Zulu Nomad’s digital marketplace by several months and began running webinars for tourism colleagues so she can continue helping the industry prepare for a more digital future.

“We realize there’s no opportunity to monetize anything at all now right now,” Hlazo said. “But we all need to understand the opportunities for when the economy recovers and travel restrictions are lifted, so as a collective we can hit the ground running.”

Data for Impact

A survey published in April by South Africa’s Department of Tourism, the Tourism Business Council of SA, and IFC revealed the anguish of South Africa’s tourism sector. Of the survey’s 1,600 respondents, 58 percent said they couldn’t make their loan repayments in March, while 54 percent said they couldn’t cover their fixed costs. Half said they were forced to slash wages for more than half of their staff.

Collecting data through surveys is a critical first step to help the industry understand the effects of COVID-19 on tourism businesses—and then to respond with targeted solutions. IFC will conduct two more surveys in South Africa in the next 12 months with the tourism sector.

“The sector must consider a long-term roadmap to move through recovery, and a sector re-boot that sets it back on a path to growth – and not just back on the pre-COVID-19 path,” said IFC Country Manager for South Africa, Adamou Labara. “There is an opportunity here to re-position South Africa in a new global economy – as a resilient destination.”

Across sub-Saharan Africa, IFC is working with existing partners in the tourism sector to help them navigate the immediate crisis and plan for recovery. In Ethiopia and Zimbabwe, IFC helped establish a dedicated communications platform to provide clear messaging to consumers about the preparedness of the destinations – and build trust with the travel trade to enable a better recovery.

In Côte d’Ivoire, IFC is supporting SMEs in the hospitality supply-chain to adapt their business models to survive the next 12 months. In Rwanda, IFC is supporting the development of the domestic and regional tourism markets, for greater resilience of the sector.

Meanwhile, In South Africa and elsewhere in the region, IFC is discussing how it can apply some of its global $8 billion fast-track financing to support private-sector clients to sustain economies and protect jobs during this unprecedented global crisis.

Preparing for Recovery

For Jabu Matsilele, who runs Johannesburg-based Buja Tours and Safaris with his wife and cousin, communication and creative solutions will underpin the rebuilding phase, which he hopes comes soon: the dozens of drivers and tour guides the company contracted prior to COVID-19 are now all out of work.

Matsilele said he regularly sends WhatsApp messages to clients in key markets in the Middle East, Turkey and India, reminding them of the beauty of South Africa and encouraging everyone during this time to look to the future. He also negotiated a postponement of some pre-booked trips to avoid cancellations. A credit holiday with some of the business financiers has also helped.

“The moment you sleep you don’t know what tomorrow will bring. It’s all about hoping,” said Matsilele.

Exactly when and how international travel will resume are unknown, but tourism businesses in South Africa and elsewhere are banking on pent-up domestic demand to restore their reeling industry once it’s safe—and permitted—to operate.

Published June 2020

Travel, Tourism & Hospitality

• Number of tourists arriving in South Africa from 2014-2022, by purpose of visit

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• Tourism direct gross value added in South Africa 2015-2021
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• Foreign tourism visitor spending as a share of exports in South Africa 2009-2020
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• Basic Statistic Contribution of travel and tourism to GDP in South Africa 2005-2021
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• Basic Statistic Tourism direct gross value added in South Africa 2015-2021
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• Basic Statistic Total contribution of travel and tourism to employment in South Africa 2019-2021

Inbound and outbound tourists

• Premium Statistic Number of international tourist arrivals in South Africa 2014-2029
• Basic Statistic Number of tourists arriving in South Africa from 2011 to 2022, by mode of travel
• Basic Statistic Number of tourists arriving in South Africa from 2014-2022, by purpose of visit
• Basic Statistic Total traveler departures from South Africa 2014-2022
• Basic Statistic Number of foreign traveler departures from South Africa 2014-2022

Tourism expenditure

• Basic Statistic Foreign tourism visitor spending in South Africa 2009-2021
• Basic Statistic Foreign tourism visitor spending as a share of exports in South Africa 2009-2020
• Basic Statistic Share of domestic and international travel spending in South Africa 2019-2020
• Basic Statistic Tourism expenditure in South Africa 2019-2021, by type
• Premium Statistic Expenditure per capita on international tourism in South Africa 2001-2029
• Premium Statistic International tourism receipts per capita in South Africa 2001-2029

Hotels and accommodation

• Premium Statistic Monthly number of foreign overnight visitors in South Africa 2022
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• Premium Statistic Occupancy rate of hotels in South Africa from 2000 to 2021
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Further Content: You might find this interesting as well

Main Content

New Directions in South African Tourism Geographies

• © 2020
• Jayne M. Rogerson 0 ,
• Gustav Visser 1

University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South Africa

You can also search for this editor in PubMed   Google Scholar

Stellenbosch University , Stellenbosch, South Africa

• Provides an overview of tourism geography in South Africa
• Illustrates the importance of South Africa as a tourism leader in the region
• Offers researchers interesting insights into the impact of tourism expansion

Part of the book series: Geographies of Tourism and Global Change (GTGC)

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Table of contents (18 chapters)

Front matter, recent trends in south african tourism geographies.

• Jayne M. Rogerson, Gustav Visser

Resort Development and Pathways in South Africa: Hermanus 1890–1994

• Christian M. Rogerson, Jayne M. Rogerson

Apartheid Hotels: The Rise and Fall of the ‘Non-white’ Hotel in South Africa

• Christian M. Rogerson

Johannesburg’s Iconic Hotels: The Life and Death of the Two Carltons

Jayne M. Rogerson

Mainstreaming Guesthouses: Reflections on the Evolution of South Africa’s First Alternative Tourist Accommodation Sector

• Gustav Visser, Nikita Eastes

Tourism Industry Perspectives on Climate Change in South Africa

• Wayde R. Pandy, Christian M. Rogerson

Travel Patterns of Uber Users in South Africa

• Julia K. Giddy

Mega-Event and Stadium Legacies in the Global South: The Case of South Africa

• Hilary Kennedy Nji Bama, Tembi M. Tichaawa

In Search of Inclusive Tourism in South Africa: Some Lessons from the International Experience

Touring poverty in townships, inner-city, and rural south africa.

• Fabian Frenzel

Tourism Innovation in the Western Cape, South Africa: Evidence from Wine Tourism

• Irma Booyens

Wine Tourism Development: Life Cycles of Wine Routes, Wine Resorts and Lifestyles in the Cape Winelands

• Sanette Ferreira

Coastal Tourism in South Africa: A Geographical Perspective

Cruising nowhere: a south african contribution to cruise tourism.

• Bradley Rink

The Influence of Commercialization of Adventure Tourism Products on the ‘Flow’ Aspect of the Tourist Experience

Locating great white shark tourism in gansbaai, south africa within the global shark tourism economy.

• Tracey McKay

Leveraging State-Owned Nature-Based Assets for Transformation and SMME Development: Pilanesberg National Park, South Africa

• Julia K. Giddy, Love Odion Idahosa, Christian M. Rogerson

How Mining is Threatening the Sustainability of the South African Nature Tourism Sector and Civil Society Response

• Llewellyn Leonard
• Tourism Geography
• Regional Tourism
• African studies
• Slum Tourism
• Climate change
• adventure tourism
• history of tourism
• world regional geography
• urban geography and urbanism

About this book

Editors and affiliations.

Gustav Visser

About the editors

Jayne M. Rogerson is Associate Professor at the School of Tourism and Hospitality, College of Business & Economics, University of Johannesburg, South Africa. She is an urban geographer by training with a specific research interest in the hotel industry and tourism in cities. She has published over 70 articles. 

Bibliographic Information

Book Title : New Directions in South African Tourism Geographies

Editors : Jayne M. Rogerson, Gustav Visser

Series Title : Geographies of Tourism and Global Change

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-29377-2

Publisher : Springer Cham

eBook Packages : Social Sciences , Social Sciences (R0)

Copyright Information : Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020

Hardcover ISBN : 978-3-030-29376-5 Published: 11 October 2019

Softcover ISBN : 978-3-030-29379-6 Published: 12 October 2020

eBook ISBN : 978-3-030-29377-2 Published: 26 September 2019

Series ISSN : 2366-5610

Series E-ISSN : 2366-5629

Edition Number : 1

Number of Pages : XII, 335

Number of Illustrations : 19 b/w illustrations, 11 illustrations in colour

Topics : Human Geography , World Regional Geography (Continents, Countries, Regions) , Urban Geography / Urbanism (inc. megacities, cities, towns)

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Netflix study: South African content creates deeper cultural affinity, potentially drives tourism

T T oday Netflix announced the launch of the Made in South Africa content collection - a curated collection featuring over 80 South African films, series, documentaries and reality TV shows created by some of the country’s most prolific talent both behind and in front of the camera. The collection highlights South African storytellers and talent who have elevated South Africa’s creative industry recognition around the world.

The collection was announced after the global streaming service shared the results from a survey called Cultural Affinity Study at a panel session hosted by SA Tourism at the Africa’s Travel & Tourism Summit held in Johannesburg and Durban on Tuesday 21 September 2021. The Cultural Affinity survey came out of the partnership between South African Tourism and the world’s leading content streaming service announced in March this year.

With the tourism sector being one of the hardest hit by the Covid-19 Pandemic, South African Tourism looked at creative ways to retain the country as an attractive travel option to global travellers. In March this year, South African Tourism and Netflix agreed to explore joint opportunities that look to showcase South African-made stories that can drive international arrivals to the country.

Speaking at the summit, Shola Sanni, Netflix’s Director of Public Policy for sub-Saharan Africa, said the Made in South Africa collection will be accessible to Netflix’s over 209-million subscribers from over 190 countries and will feature shows included in the Cultural Affinity survey and the much-loved shows and films such as My Octopus Teacher , Blood & Water , JIVA!, How to Ruin Christmas: The Wedding, Trippin’ with the Kandasamys, I Am All Girls, Queen Sono, Kings of Joburg, Santana, Riding with Sugar, Seriously Single and many more. “It is about partnering to showcase the best of the local culture. It is about South Africans telling their stories to the world. There is a connection that happens when people view content and stories on Netflix. What we found is this power to be a cultural ambassador for South Africa and the continent.”

Netflix Cultural Affinity survey’s startling results

Netflix conducted a Cultural Affinity survey with subscribers from Canada, Germany, the US, the UK, Brazil and France and found that after watching South African content, they were 3.1 times more likely to make South Africa their number one travel destination while also being 5.6 times more likely to learn a local language.

The survey also found that South African content is a powerful vehicle for creating deeper cultural affinity that could drive tourism. “It ties into the objective that tourism boards around the world want to achieve of how they can leverage the power of storytelling on the service and translate it into actual tourism influx. By bringing these insights to government, we thought they could leverage this opportunity to increase actual tourism traffic,” said Sanni.

Findings showed that viewers of My Octopus Teacher wanted to visit South Africa for its nature and wildlife, viewers of Blood & Water were attracted to its landmarks and monuments, while viewers of Seriously Single wanted to explore the country’s creative scene. Not only do these stories showcase the beauty of South Africa but also showcase the country as a great film production location for other content creators around the world. “The very first thing for partners to understand is the more authentic the story is, the more compelling it is for viewers - not the simplistic portrayal of Africa, but the true and authentic side of Africa.”

Viewers who participated in the survey were able to relate to the stories and characters in these and other South African productions. “They saw themselves reflected in those stories. One US viewer said they felt people in South Africa have the same aspirations and life experiences as those in their country,” said Sanni.

She added: “Now more than ever, digital technology allows us to transcend geographical borders and enable people from around the world to view local content,”

Netflix partnership builds soft power

Chief Marketing Officer of South African Tourism, Mzilikazi Themba Khumalo, said that the partnership with Netflix would build the soft power base for South Africa and the continent and export the African way of life. “It is so the world can perceive the way we are talented, young and fresh and export the whole tapestry from a cultural standpoint.”

The partnership between Netflix and South African Tourism was born from the onset of the Coronavirus pandemic. People were not able to travel and opted for consuming content on platforms such as Netflix. “We saw that as an opportunity to enhance South Africa’s communications to the world as storytelling in the long form,” said Khumalo.

He said that destinations can serve as backdrops for films so as to attract viewers to those places. “As a tourism body we need to have a backdrop for a story that Netflix wants to tell. If you watch American movies shot in Washington DC, shots of the White House, The Capitol and other key icons in the city are shown. They have built the iconography in the film to project the power of the destination.”

According to Sanni, for every original production, 67% of the budget goes to other sectors other than film. “Countries must realise that the film industry must be leveraged to fulfil economic deliverables.”

Join the conversation on all social media platforms using the following:

#ShareSouthAfrica

#VisitAfrica

@SATravelTrade

For media enquiries, please contact:

Lesego Marimo at South African Tourism     

Tel: +27 73 266 6025

Email: [email protected] OR [email protected]

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The surfer chef behind South Africa’s first fine dining halal restaurant

Anwar Abdullatief creates stunning halal food infused with Cape Malay flavours and seasoned with attitude.

Cape Town, South Africa  – The first sign that Anwar Abdullatief is not an average chef is his choice of headwear. Despite the whimsical and sophisticated nature of his cooking, he and his team do not wear puffy white chef hats. Granted, many modern chefs favour grittier skull caps or bandanas. But Abdullatief does it his own way: Everyone in his kitchen wears a demure tartan flat cap and a stonewashed blue apron.

Neatly stacked stainless-steel shelves reach almost to the ceiling of the renovated warehouse space. Extra chairs are stacked in the parking garage which is visible through the open back door. The team of 11 works silently, methodically, as they assemble the artful creations that are the product of Abdullatief’s imagination. On one counter, an assistant arranges leaves and flowers on the elaborate labyrinthine platter in which mature cheddar cookies with smoked hake and prawn brandade are nestled.

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At the stove, Abdullatief is deep-frying the battered dune spinach – an ingredient he first encountered on surfing trips up South Africa’s desolate west coast – that will adorn “The Bass”, this week’s fish course.

If there’s one thing Abdullatief has gleaned from two decades working in some of South Africa’s finest kitchens, it is this: “Chefs love alcohol, bacon and Parma ham.” It is normal for chefs to try each other’s sauces but, as a Muslim who abstains from all three, Abdullatief soon realised it was safer to just say no.

That changed when he was made head chef: “Whenever I was put in charge of things, I would surreptitiously make the menu halal. No pork in the stock, no alcohol in the jus,” he says with a laugh. “My bosses never complained and neither did the diners. The food tasted good – why would they?”

Fast forward a few years and the 40-year-old is now the owner of The Happy Uncles, South Africa’s first fine dining halal restaurant, and Barakat, a popular contemporary Cape Malay eatery in Cape Town’s new Time Out Market. Last year, he scooped the Rising Star prize at South Africa’s premier restaurant awards.

It is a significant accomplishment considering he had finished with restaurants two years ago.

What’s in a name?

“I didn’t plan any of this,” he explains: “The Happy Uncles is not a good name for a restaurant. The space is surrounded by scrap yards. None of this was meant to happen … life just pushed me in that direction.”

After exiting his previous business, a café in the farming town of Paarl called My Cross Aunt (a playful take on the French word croissant), in 2021, Abdullatief turned his focus to private cheffing. As his client list grew, he realised he needed a name for his business and a place to store his equipment.

He did not give either much thought. “What’s the opposite of a cross aunt?” he asks, rhetorically. The Happy Uncles signified a fresh start: “I was moving back home, getting married, I could surf all the spots again. But it was never meant to be the name of a restaurant.”

The space, in a renovated warehouse surrounded by panel beaters and shipping containers, was also not meant to be a dining establishment. But when he was asked to put on a birthday party for a good friend’s wife, he was forced to find some tables and chairs.

“We did a six-course menu for the family,” he recalls. “After the dinner, they started posting on social media, going on about this halal fine-dining experience and hassling me to do it for more people… Every time I did a dinner, the people would tell me to make it a restaurant. But I didn’t want to go back to that.”

Then, he says, strangers started calling: “Everyone was saying ‘You’re the first halal fine-dining restaurant in the country.’ But we weren’t even a restaurant.”

Eventually, he relented. “We started off once a month. Then every second week. Then once a week …” Fast forward 18 months and the restaurant is now open five days a week and has won multiple awards, including for the best halal restaurant in Cape Town in 2023.

While Abdullatief seems surprised at his rapid rise, Jermaine Esau, a fellow chef who has known him for a decade and a half, is not: “None of it was ever intentional but there was a need for it,” he says. “The Muslim community in Cape Town is huge. They wouldn’t go to places where there’s wine around. Muslim fine dining makes perfect sense. But Anwar’s such a good chef that he gets supported by people from all over.”

Abdullatief estimates that only 50 percent of his clientele is Muslim.

The space – all exposed bricks and original artwork – is far more refined than Abdullatief lets on. The pictures he has chosen to display reflect his personality. One wall features a zany painting of a woman in pointy sunglasses and a Rasta hat with feathers dangling from her hair; another is bedecked with gilt-framed prints of Arabic calligraphy.

On a glossy table to the side, a dozen glass teapots, each containing a different shade of amber liquid, stay warm above tealight candles. This curated tea menu changes as often as the food menu does.

Next to the tea table sits a somewhat hidden rack containing bottles of non-alcoholic champagne.

Every dish on the eight-course menu Al Jazeera tried was remarkable, but there were two standouts. “Amagwinya” is elevated township street food: a deep-fried dough ball stuffed with tender karoo lamb and accompanied by “smoked tarragon buttercream, salsa verde, butter pips [the seeds of an indigenous melon favoured by the Khoisan people] and truffle aioli.”

The other winner: a palate-cleansing elderflower and apple sorbet, made theatrically at the table with more than a little help from a flask of liquid nitrogen.

Do not expect to taste these dishes in weeks or months to come, however. Abdullatief changes his menu whenever the whim takes him.

Back to the start

Abdullatief grew up in the Cape Town suburb of Zeekoevlei, named after the hippos that still live in the nearby wetland. Although most of his schooling took place after apartheid had ended, because of South Africa’s complicated past, he went to a school with no white students.

“It was the first high school of colour to offer cooking as a subject,” recalls Abdullatief, who was part of that first class. “I loved cheffing, but I didn’t get great marks. I was always on my own mission, making my own dishes. Everyone else was conforming.”

And not just in the kitchen. “I was into heavy metal and drum ’n bass. I always had my skateboard with me. I was a surfer,” he says. “It’s not that I didn’t have friends. But I was always a bit different.”

Abdullatief, who remains a keen surfer, expanded his culinary horizons on surfing trips: “We were camping, cooking on fires, foraging for mussels, eating dune spinach… I took the cooking techniques I’d learned in chef class and ran with it.”

Abdullatief did not understand it at the time, but his first and most important culinary classroom was his Cape Malay upbringing. The term for Cape Town’s Muslim community traces its origins back to slaves brought to South Africa from the East (mainly Indonesia) from the 1650s onwards. “Cape Malay people grow up with flavours: cinnamon, cardamom, star anise, coriander seeds,” he says. “As a youngster, you don’t think about it … Your mom just wants to give you food but you’re shy to open your lunchbox because it will smell funny.”

Only now that Abdullatief has grown up does he realise how lucky he was: “I had a wealth of food experience under my belt without even knowing it. I grew up eating good-quality tasty meals three times a day. A huge variety of different dishes cooked by my mom and my gran.”

Some of that knowledge lay dormant – but not forgotten – for decades.

After school, and a tourism diploma, Abdullatief got a job as a hotel chef. It was during this time that he became “obsessed” with the brain, he recalls. “I’d be sitting on a train analysing people: Why’s this person huddled in a corner? Why’s that one holding the bar?”

Not leaving that itch unscratched, he enrolled for a degree in psychology. While his subsequent career success stopped him from finishing the degree (with just two modules remaining) he is glad he did it: “To be a good chef, you need to use psychology all day, every day.”

‘I love change and I don’t like politics’

Abdullatief found working as a hotel chef tiresome, so he applied for a job at a tourist restaurant in Cape Town’s trendy Waterfront precinct. He aced the required cook-off, and despite being a relative beginner, was soon in charge of all the restaurant’s biggest sellers.

“They specialised in the food I’d grown up with… Stews and bredies [vegetable broth stews] and curries. The bosses said my flavours were spot on. I never follow recipes or use measurements… It’s not something you can be taught. You smell the spice and you know how much you need.”

Abdullatief is the first to admit that he is easily bored: “I love change and I don’t like politics. Once the skindering [gossiping] starts, I’m outta there.”

After that first restaurant job, he landed a gig at a nearby boutique hotel. “It wasn’t fine dining”, he says, “but the head chef was often away and I learned a lot about managing a kitchen”.

His next big break came when he landed a junior job at Delaire-Graaff, one of many fine dining restaurants in the picturesque Cape Winelands region of South Africa’s Western Cape province. Working on a wine farm might seem a curious choice for a Muslim, but the establishment was at the epicentre of the South African culinary scene at the time, making it a good place to advance his career.

Esau, who met Abdualltief at Delaire-Graff, picks up the tale: “Anwar was working on the veg section, the busiest section of all, and we had three copper pans to feed 200 guests.” Esau was immediately impressed: “You could just see this guy, he’s got skills, he’s calm, he’s meticulous, he knows what he’s doing.”

Over the next 12 years, Abdullatief honed his craft at several prestigious restaurants around the Winelands, approximately an hour from Cape Town. Moving there meant leaving his beloved Cape Town – and its plentiful waves – behind. However,  he also met a budding chef called Yolani Abrahams, who would become his wife.

He thought he would finally be able to settle in one place when he was made executive chef at a prestigious wine farm. “I established a vegetable garden for the kitchen and I was living in this beautiful cottage on the farm. The job was perfect.”

But the fairytale came crashing down when COVID-19 hit. “The boss agreed to pay my salary but he refused to pay my staff,” he tells Al Jazeera, anger flushing his face. “He wouldn’t even let me give them vegetables from the gardens or food from the pantry. These people had nothing. Really, nothing.”

Abdullatief ignored his boss’s orders, handing out food to those who needed it most, and lost his job.

Becoming his own boss

Fed up with working for other people, Abdullatief teamed up with a family in the nearby town of Paarl to open My Cross Aunt. Its gourmet take on breakfast staples was an instant hit, he says, but he quickly realised that working with partners was just as fraught as working for bosses.

He then switched focus to private cheffing: “I was my own boss, no one was telling me what to do. I vowed never to go back to big restaurants and fine dining.”

Fate had other ideas. Soon, The Happy Uncles had established a reputation that opened new, and lucrative, doors for Abdullatief.

When Time Out opened its first market – there are only seven in the world – on the African continent, they reached out to Abdullatief to become part of the exclusive franchise.

“Someone at Time Out’s head office in London had heard about The Happy Uncles,” he explains. “They could have asked an aunty from the Bo Kaap [a traditional Cape Malay hood] but they wanted something more refined. Something between fine dining and a massive plate of curry.”

In November 2023, Abdullatief opened Barakat – which means “blessings” in Arabic – in the Time Out Market at the V&A Waterfront area of Cape Town. (When Al Jazeera visited the stall, it had the longest line of all the vendors).

The all-halal menu features dishes that originated in the slave-run kitchens of 17th century Cape homesteads: Denningvleis, which is lamb neck in a sticky, black tamarind sauce unique to Cape Town, and ou mense onder die komberse (“old people under the blankets”), a slow-braised beef shin wrapped in cabbage leaves.

“Every single dish at Barakat connects me to my childhood,” he says. “At the Happy Uncles, there’s always a whole lot of elements that connect me to my past. But they’re mixed in with my present and my future.”

Case in point: the dessert course on the menu the day Al Jazeera visited The Happy Uncles. The Malva Tart, named after South Africa’s most famous pudding, is an ambitious and visually arresting exploration of some of Cape Town’s most iconic sweet flavours.

“We make a malva pudding and we blend the whole thing and put it into a long, rectangular tart case,” Abdullatief explains. This is accompanied by a delicate arrangement of mebos (South African dried fruit) jelly, koesister crumble (a delicately spiced Cape Malay take on doughnuts) and boeber (a milky drink made from vermicelli and sago, and flavoured with cardamom, stick cinnamon and rose water) ice cream.

Never one to stand still, Abdullatief says he is currently busy with several projects, noting that there are “definitely more Cape Malay projects in the pipeline”. He and Abrahams are researching dishes from as far back as the 1600s, finding ways to preserve the cuisine “as well as keeping it relevant”.

“It’s reached a point where I feel responsible for the cuisine and my culture,” he says. “We have to preserve it… It is fading. There are so many dishes that are so good. Hundreds and hundreds of dishes that people don’t cook any more. Keeping these dishes alive is very important.”