ENTREPRENEUR: Lebohang Malepa of Lebo’s Soweto Backpackers
Malepa finally got foreign tourists to ‘get off the bus’ and visit his home town, but he’s still hoping to get ordinary South Africans to do the same
Partly because he was deeply frustrated that most tourists were still observing Soweto from the comfort of their tour buses, Lebohang Malepa, now the owner of Lebo’s Soweto Backpackers, started selling craftwork near the Hector Pieterson Museum 20 years ago. "We weren’t given the space to tell our story … I wanted them to get out the bus," Malepa says, referring to the 1,000-odd tourists who were passing through SA’s most famous township every day on fleeting trips. While talking to the FM, recalling his humble beginnings, the laid-back Sowetan is joined by his Swedish wife, Maria, and their two children. Lebo’s is a stone’s throw from Vilakazi Street, said to be the only street in the world where two Nobel laureates have lived: former president Nelson Mandela and archbishop emeritus Desmond Tutu. As Malepa talks, a group of guests — mostly Europeans, an American and a handful of regulars who live in the area — are chatting around the fire after having been served an authentic SA cu...
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