Thapelo Mokoena talks building a legacy and becoming a restaurateur

He’s an actor, producer, filmmaker, winemaker, TV host and now Thapelo Mokoena has added restaurateur to his long list of achievements after launching the Malitva Restaurant with head chef and part-owner Milan Cerimaj.

“I’m a firm believer in the fact that you have to try something in life, you have to have a solid goal in life and go for it,” he tells TshisaLIVE.

His restaurant, situated in the heart of Gauteng’s busiest tourism route in The Cradle of Humankind, serves “orthodox Mediterranean” cuisine, and the open grass fields and garden entrance are a great depiction of his childhood growing up in a small town called Ladysmith. 

“We call it a destination. I grew up on a farm where there's a garden and when you walk through the restaurant you walk through a garden. I wanted to lean in on that and enhance the open space. It’s designed as an experience not for a takeaway or an in and out.”

Thapelo’s knack for the entrepreneurial space stems from watching his father create a legacy for himself out of nothing,

“My father was someone that did not have a full education and what he managed to do with his determination and hunger back in those years definitely was something that has always stuck out to me and my brothers and we caught on to it,” 

The actor wants to create and leave a legacy for his children too.

“I grew up in an entrepreneurial family. My pursuit for creating and building and setting up legacies for myself and now that I have children, it’s always at the back of my mind too.

“All my children need to understand the power of getting up and moving forward is unmatched because not a lot of people keep moving forward and I’ve always remembered when I left home after matric to be here in Johannesburg, I’ve never forgotten the dreams as a small-town farm boy, having big dreams.”

With his wine company, Bosman Nero, getting nominated for Best Launch and Intro into the market at the 2021 Drinks Business Awards in the UK, his entrepreneurial journey is heading in the direction that he wants it to go he says,

“The wine business has been a dream for me. I invested in a wine farm and a wine company ... It shows the power of resilience ... for me just being recognised as the best brand to come into the liquor market in the UK from the African soil is incredible.”

While he dabbles in the business space, his acting career is not on the back burner. He’s set to travel to an island at month-end to honour an acting contract that is a year and a half delayed due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

“The acting doesn’t stop, that’s my life, that's my art which is not going to be on a go-slow any time soon.”

Thapelo has been involved in numerous international projects and he has a film opening in North America soon and a Netflix drama film called Angelina premiering on October 8.