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Vosloorus has never lacked good food.
There is pap, meat sizzling over open flames, kotas large enough to require structural engineering and some genuinely inventive cooking happening in backyards, containers and small roadside kitchens.
It’s an exciting, over overlooked township with a rich and complex history and I’d definitely recommend a visit if you’ve never been.
What you don't necessarily expect to find is a woman quietly trying to convince her neighbourhood to eat more wraps
Her name is Thobile Sibeko.
Thobile has the kind of energy you notice immediately when she walks into the room. She is warm, funny, determined and deeply serious about what she is building. Her business, Tobs Wraps, sits on the corner of Moagi and Bierman roads in Vosloorus, and the story behind how it all began is among the most inspiring I’ve encountered on my travels
The idea began taking shape when she starting thinking more seriously about the quality of fast food available in townships. Working in the corporate world at the team, she took a massive risk by leaving her job and launching into a new business.
Then Covid arrived.
Like thousands of entrepreneurs across South Africa, the plan suddenly had to change. Resources were limited, every cent needed to count and complicated menus made little sense. Thankfully wraps are beautifully simple. Flour. Water. Oil. Heat.
Sometimes limitations force you to become more creative.
Thobile opened the business with just R7,000 and kept adapting. Lockdown forced her to relocate. She dealt with theft, found ways to deliver food to customers who couldn’t make it to her store. She became a full-time hustler, willing to do whatever was needed to make things work.
Eventually she found the space where Tobs Wraps operates today. It had become associated with people struggling with nyaope addiction and some members of the community wanted it destroyed.
Instead, Thobile convinced the community to let her build, which tells you a lot about how she thinks.
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Today, kids pass through on their way to and from school. Regulars arrive knowing exactly what they want. Other customers travel into Vosloorus because somebody told them about these wraps.
More than anything, they’re coming for the awesome food!
There are smoked chicken, boerewors, Russian, bacon and cheese and boneless rib combinations. There are toasted wraps with beautifully crisp edges, generous platters and homemade sauces that give everything its own flair. The current menu has even expanded into things like shisa wraps and kota-inspired wraps.
More than just her own business, Thobile has also used what she has learned to teach other women through Skaftin Bootcamp, showing local mothers how something as simple and affordable as a wrap can become another way to feed a family.
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Her ambitions keep growing too. Tobs Wraps has appeared at major food events, expanded through delivery platforms and started reaching customers well beyond the people walking past the shop.
Township food culture should never be treated like something frozen in time, it’s a living breathing thing that thanks to people like Thobile is constantly evolving in the most delicious way.
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