Mcebisi Gugu Ndlovu went from washing dishes at a Doppio Zero to owning his own small bakery in Khayelitsha that baked a cake for ANC President Cyril Ramaphosa.

• Mcebisi Gugu Ndlovu went from washing pots at a Doppio Zero to owning his own small bakery in Khayelitsha.
• He started his own bakery after losing his job during Covid-19, which has since won five small business competitions.
• This caught the eye of President Cyril Ramaphosa’s staff when they were looking for a local baker to create a cake for the ANC’s January 8 celebrations last year.
• This is our fifth story in our series SA Success Stories: Origin stories of successful SA businesses, NGOs and individuals.

Mcebisi Gugu Ndlovu got a job washing pots at Doppio Zero in St George’s Mall in 2011 after moving to Cape Town from KwaZulu-Natal.

It was here that he met the manager of the restaurant, Danny Diliberto, who would later start the very successful Ladles of Love food organisation and play a role in Ndlovu’s own story.

But back then, Ndlovu was trying to forge a career in the food industry and got promoted six months in after showing some enterprise while working in the pizza section.

“There was someone who came to teach us how to bake, and we had to bake a lemon meringue. Most of the guys failed. I figured out that we had to use a paper towel to drain the water, and they loved my idea. They then put me in the bakery.”

Ndlovu would spend the next six years baking for Doppio Zero, and then later, a few other restaurants, but lost his job once Covid-19 hit.

It was here that he decided to start his own bakery called Cake Talk.

“I started baking muffins to sell at school. I would go with a bucket of mini muffins to school and sell to 18 students every day.”

It was while doing this that he reached out to his old mentor, Diliberto, who offered him a job with his burgeoning food organisation, Ladles of Love.

He went through the organisation’s Realise a Dream programme, which assisted small business owners in creating and expanding their own operations.

“Danny told me that he had a Realise a Dream competition. I came third, and I remember that’s when people started to recognise that I had a small business.”

Over the next five years, he won four more small business competitions for his baking while also working at Ladles of Love, and successfully applied for funding from the National Youth Development Agency.

One of his awards included the City of Cape Town’s Youth Star competition in 2024. It was here that ANC president Cyril Ramaphosa’s staff saw that he had won and reached out to see if he would bake for the party’s January 8 celebrations to be hosted a few months later in Cape Town in January 2025.

It was the chance of a lifetime, and Ndlovu went to work.

“I managed to rent a space at Maker’s Landing in the Waterfront. I baked everything there. It wasn’t as easy as you think, because there was security watching to make sure you weren’t putting anything in the cake,” he laughed.

“It was tight, but I was proud at the end of the day.”

Today Cake Talk is a small container bakery in Khayelitsha, has almost 10 000 Facebook followers and bakes many items, including vetkoek, muffins and other items. But his biggest sellers are his cakes.

“My customers who buy are in the community. It’s going well. In the township, everyone needs vetkoek. When they come to buy vetkoek, they see that I also sell cakes. They take my number and pass it on, so that’s how my business grew. I make about five to six cakes a day now.”

Looking forward, the 30-year-old’s dream is to grow as much as he can and employ more people. He also hopes to get a bigger space in another area to bake while still serving the Khayelitsha community and other small branches.

“Business is nice when you see the business growing.”

His words of advice to other small business owners are: “Listen to other people when they give you advice. Don’t be scared of going to someone, whether they are younger or older, and ask people for assistance.”

Diliberto has played a long-term mentorship role for Ndlovu over the years.

“When we started Realise A Dream, he knew the craft, but he didn’t have business acumen. You know, profit, costs, those sorts of things. We had a few one-on-ones when I sat with him and chatted to him about expenses and margin, etc.

“Because he was part of my journey (at Doppio Zero), he became an automatic entry into Realise A Dream. He got a lot of business coaching and presentation skills.

“He reached out to me after he lost his job, and knowing him, I said sure.

“For me, he shows what good attitude is. He started as a guy washing pots. He came to work, you didn’t hear from him, he did his work and went home. I knew if I put him down on a shift, he would be there. For me, those are always such important people to take care of. Those ones that look after you and have good attitudes, you have to look after them, so when he said he was looking for work, I was happy to be able to help him.”

This is our fifth story in our series SA Success Stories: Origin stories of successful SA businesses, NGOs and individuals.

If you have a success story to tell, email [email protected].