On the first Friday evening of every month, from 6pm to 8pm, a warm, cosy little beachfront cafe comes alive on the Esplanande.
It is not a conference. It is not a panel. Kofini & Co is a space where creatives, entrepreneurs and professionals come together for the kind of spirited fellowship and conversations that can feed and warm the back of the mind for the rest of the week — or change the world.
Curated by Kofini & Co owner Lwandy Ngebe alongside festival curator Phaphama Mnqadi — whose mantle as SA Jazz MC is growing fast — the intention is simple: let’s move beyond talking and begin to shape something of substance in the Buffalo City business community.
This time, the conversation was about policy. Not policy in theory, but policy in practice. Because there is a difference.
“People speak about programmes like the Mzansi Golden Economy as if they are active — as if there is a clear line between government intention and lived experience,“ said Mnqadi.
“But when you sit in a space with people actually working in the creative sector, that line starts to blur.
“The question that kept coming up this Friday was simple: what actually happens at local level?”
In Buffalo City, the answer is uncomfortable.
There is no clear, functioning policy that speaks directly to the creative sector.
And as Mnqadi points out, even where funding exists at national or provincial level, it rarely finds its way into spaces like this one.
“This is not a failure of ideas,” he says. “It is a failure of reach.”
Because on the ground, creatives are not operating within a supported system. They are building their own.
Which is why, in SA, being a creative and being an entrepreneur have become the same thing. Not by design, but by default.
“You are responsible for your craft, your income, your visibility and your growth — all at once,“ Mnqadi says.
“There is no clear pipeline. No structured progression. Just constant navigation.”
And yet, what stands out in the space is not a feeling of struggle, but capability.
“People are already doing the work,” he said.
Sivu Giba of SivuBuhle Media spoke about the importance of finally having a space where creatives feel seen and heard.
“That sense of belonging is often overlooked, but it matters, especially in industries where people operate in isolation,” she added.
Jama and Siviwe Sikalo of Distinctive Cakes spoke glowingly about growth through connection.
Not just networking, but building something ongoing with other businesses in Gompo.
The kind of engagement that allows people to hold each other accountable over time.
“Even the way the session started on Friday said something,” said Mnqadi.
“People introduced each other, not themselves.
“It forced a different kind of attention. You had to listen, to observe, to really see the person in front of you.
“And during the evening one thing became extremely clear: there is a lot of talent sitting quietly in these spaces.”
Mnqadi says there are many Buffalo City creatives with real ability, often holding back, sometimes battling imposter syndrome, sometimes just waiting for the right environment to burst into life.
The constraints are not always just personal. Sometimes they are structural. Because when there are no clear pathways, people begin to internalise that absence.
They start to question themselves, instead of questioning the system.
What became clear through the conversation on Friday evening is that funding — or lack of it — is not the only issue.
There is access. There is co-ordination. There is whether the creative economy is taken seriously at a local level.
Buffalo City is not short on potential. Events like Umthiza Cultural Festival, Jazz and the City and the brand-new Quigney Cultural Festival already show what is possible when creativity is given space.
They bring people together. They create movement. They show that this sector has real economic value.
At the moment a weak point is the structure to sustain it.
By the end of the session on Friday, there was no grand resolution.
“But something more important had happened,” said Mnqadi: “A shift in mindset.”
A new willingness to be intentional, to share resources and to collaborate had emerged by the end of the evening, he added.
To build something consistent from within the space itself.
“Waiting for policy to take effect is not a strategy,” he says.
And maybe that is the point. Policy is not always born in government offices. Sometimes it starts in spaces like this.
And if those spaces remain consistent, focused and connected, they may even begin to shape it.
Daily Dispatch
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