What started as a fascination with sauces while working behind a bar in Seychelles has grown into a rural agro-processing dream for Kgaugelo Ramaphoko. After leaving a secure hospitality job, he returned to his home village near Phalaborwa and turned his passion for flavour into Kasi Sauce, a growing business he hopes will one day create jobs and supply markets far beyond Limpopo.
By Montsho Matlala
As a bartender, Kgaugelo Ramaphoko could no longer suppress his desire to make tasty sauces. After years of learning from chefs in Seychelles, he eventually resigned from his salaried job, returned home and used his modest savings to turn his passion into a business.
More than four years later, the 38-year-old runs Kasi Sauce, a small sauce manufacturing venture from his parental home in Mashishimale village near Phalaborwa in Limpopo’s Mopani district. He is determined to grow the business into a fully-fledged agro-processing enterprise.
From passion to business
Registered as Ramaphoko Group (Pty) Ltd in 2022, the business trades as Kasi Sauce, producing hot and mild sauces in 275ml bottles.
Kgaugelo cooks the sauces at home using a pot, blender and sauce filter before applying the necessary food-safety processes and adding the final ingredients. He keeps his recipes and mixing methods closely guarded as proprietary knowledge.
The business sources its vegetables mainly from local farmers.
“We source bird’s-eye chillies, onions, green peppers and tomatoes from farmers, first around Ba-Phalaborwa local municipality, Mopani district and from Limpopo province as a whole,” he says.
The sauces are designed to complement meat, chicken, pork, vegetables and traditional favourites such as mopane worms, mala mogodu and morogo.
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Learning from chefs
Kgaugelo’s journey into sauce manufacturing began during his hospitality career.
After working at a music shop in Phalaborwa and later at a shop in the Kruger National Park, he joined Tsogo Sun. His potential was recognised and in 2018 he was selected for an overseas bartending position in Seychelles.
Working on Mahe Island exposed him to professional chefs and their sauce-making techniques.
“I would deliberately arrive at work a few hours earlier just to interact and spend time with sauce chefs to learn more. I enjoyed every minute of helping prepare sauces with those wonderful guys,” he recalls.
His experience was cut short when the Covid-19 pandemic disrupted the hospitality industry. After about 15 months in Seychelles, he returned to South Africa.
When restrictions eased, he found another bartending job at a hotel in Tzaneen. But his passion for sauces persisted. He began experimenting with tomatoes, chillies and other vegetables in his spare time and sold sauces to a few customers after hours.
He eventually approached the hotel manager with an idea to supply the sauces for the hotel’s meals. When the proposal failed to progress and patrons began asking him about his products, he decided to leave.
“I sensed a conflict of interest. I ultimately called it a day at the hotel to go and concentrate on sauce manufacturing,” he says.
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Building a market
Today, Kgaugelo markets Kasi Sauce through Facebook, TikTok and WhatsApp. He also sets up promotional tables outside food businesses and at strategic locations, allowing potential customers to taste the products.
Among his customers are Roots stores and independent shops around Phalaborwa. Some customers also visit his family home to place orders or buy stock.
The business currently has five assistants who work when demand requires it.
Kgaugelo believes access to finance, equipment and infrastructure could help him increase production and create permanent and part-time employment.
“Ever since I started the business I haven’t received any financial or material assistance from government. But I must state SEDA is doing a great job with training and workshops for aspirant entrepreneurs like me,” he says.
Through the Small Enterprise Development Agency (SEDA), he is receiving training in customer care, financial management and food safety.
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Scaling up remains a challenge
Growth, however, comes with challenges. Kasi Sauce needs industrial blenders and sauce filters to increase production, while transport remains a major constraint.
Without a delivery vehicle, Kgaugelo relies mainly on taxis. This limits the amount of stock he can transport and makes deliveries to distant customers uneconomical when orders are small. “We have to look at transport costs versus gains,” he says.
Water and electricity cost about R1 700 a month, excluding vegetables, chillies and other ingredients.
His immediate ambition is to secure premises in an industrial area where he can establish a larger agro-processing facility producing sauces and related food products. He believes this could create opportunities throughout the value chain for farmers, packaging suppliers, brand developers, administrators, technicians and transporters.
“I have made it my business to knock on every door for help in terms of capital or possible partnership to ensure the factory dream becomes real,” he says.
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His entrepreneurial journey has also earned recognition. Kgaugelo has been shortlisted as a finalist in two categories – Unsung Hero Award and Legacy Grower Award – at the South African Agricultural Awards 2026, scheduled for 16 October in Sandton, Gauteng.
He hopes to attend the ceremony and return home with an award but needs assistance with transport and accommodation costs. “I am holding my breath. The only hiccup troubling me about the awards is not being sure yet I will reach Sandton,” he says.
For Kgaugelo, however, the ultimate prize is bigger than an award: it is turning a home-based sauce venture into a sustainable rural agro-processing business that creates jobs and opportunities for others.
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