Young Sandiso Mpengesi recalls his parents’ wedding and how, even though his dad was now basking in the glow of one who had recently found God, poverty still stalked the couple’s day of matrimony.
Junior Mpengesi says that when his dad ‘found God,’ he decided to marry the mother of his only child at the time.
THE BIBLE WAS CHIPPA MPENGESI’S TEXTBOOK
“When my father found God, he settled down with my mother. My mom and dad have nothing in common, but he decided to learn how to love her. The Bible was his textbook,” the 25-year-old tells FARPost in a telephonic interview.
Chippa Mpengesi, in a separate interview with this publication, stresses why it was vital for him to settle down despite not being in an excellent financial position.
“When I gave my life to Christ, the next thing was to live right. I had a girlfriend that I decided to marry early even though I lived in a shack. I didn’t want to live with someone outside marriage,” he explains.
At the time, the Chippa United owner, who was in his early 20s, worked as a security guard in Cape Town. Month after month, he had to test the elasticity of a meagre R900 paycheck.
It literally meant there was no money to throw the kind of wedding any woman would dream of. But a wedding, in their eyes, was the noble thing to do.
“On their marriage day, he rented his suit; he could not afford to buy her a dress; they even had to jump onto a train to their wedding, which was held at church.
“The church donated the food; they had a simple cake from Shoprite. He could not afford a proper wedding cake, but he wanted to put his life right,” Sandiso, who recently got married, adds.
HIS BUSINESS EMPIRE
Thereafter, the story of how Mpengesi got his business empire rolling reads like the stuff of urban legend. While other young business upstarts scrambled for lucrative contracts and gigs that everyone else was also going for, the Eastern Cape-born businessman decided to take the path less travelled.
It would be a decision that would change his life forever. “I ended up advising Pick ‘n Pay to collect trolleys [dumped in the townships], something they thought was of value, and no one was interested.
“It was the Pick ‘n’ Pay in Claremont [Cape Town]. They asked me to collect trolleys only in the townships. God gives us ideas and wisdom because no one could not have given me an opportunity.
“Pick ‘n Pay gave me a trial; they didn’t initially want to give me a contract. A trolley was worth R500. I needed a bakkie or a truck and muscular guys for that kind of business.
“I was still young and skinny. I asked another guy there. Pick ‘n Pay gave me a letter authorising me to collect the trolleys on their behalf.
“Some guy offered to use his bakkie, but he had to drive because I couldn’t go. I collected 800 trolleys for Pick ‘n Pay, which saved them R400000, and they gave me R11000.
“I had quit my security guard job because I needed to focus on collecting trolleys fully. They then gave me a contract of R40000 a month. That’s where everything started,” he says.
Since then, his business empire has grown in leaps and bounds.
RELATED STORY: How Chippa Mpengesi got the nickname Chippa
