REINTRODUCING CAFÉ RIZA by Miss V and Mr Ntshinga

admin | September 28, 2026

REINTRODUCING CAFÉ RIZA: WHERE FOOD, HERITAGE AND VISION MEET

There comes a point in time when you get to meet souls who are not dissimilar to you.

I am an educator, a computer programmer and a man of God. Along my journey, I have met many people, but every now and then you meet someone whose way of thinking, whose energy and whose vision feels strangely familiar.

For me, one of those people is Vuyokazi Duze.

I call her Miss V.

I knew her from church. I did not know her from the kitchen.

What I did know was that she was an entrepreneur, and from the moment she shared her vision with me privately, I was sold. There was something there. As a Ntshinga and a Maths teacher, perhaps I recognised the calculation before I knew the answer.

Fast-forward, and I now know that Miss V has pipes — and that vision has a much deeper pipeline.

So, colleagues, friends and fellow travellers in the story of our city, ECLIVES.online would like to reintroduce you to Café Riza.

CAFÉ RIZA — A TASTE OF HOME, WITH A VISION

Café Riza is a quaint restaurant and café situated in New Brighton, Gqeberha — a space where food, heritage, hospitality and entrepreneurship come together.

But let me be clear: this is not simply another place where you arrive, order something, eat and leave.

There is something different happening here.

Café Riza takes flavours that feel familiar to us and gives them room to breathe, while bringing a touch of class, creativity and African culinary imagination to the table.

The restaurant describes itself as a Xhosa restaurant and café celebrating flavour, culture and community, with a menu that draws from heritage recipes while also embracing culinary influences from across Africa.

And that is important to me.

Because food is never only food.

Food carries memory.

Food carries family.

Food carries place.

Food tells us where we have been, while sometimes giving us the courage to imagine where we could go next.

That is what I see when I look at Café Riza.

MEET THE WOMAN BEHIND THE NAME

Vuyokazi Duze is not simply the owner of Café Riza. She is the woman behind the vision.

The name itself carries something personal: Riza is her nickname, and she has given that name to a space that now welcomes other people into her world.

Her culinary journey is bigger than New Brighton. Vuyokazi is a formally trained chef who studied at the Elsa van der Nest Culinary Academy and went on to work in Cape Town and aboard a cruise ship, travelling through different countries and experiencing different culinary cultures. She has brought some of those experiences home and placed them alongside the flavours and stories of her own community.

That, for me, is where the story becomes interesting.

Because she did not have to leave New Brighton in order to leave New Brighton behind.

She travelled.

She learnt.

She experienced.

And she came back with more to give.

NEW BRIGHTON ON THE PLATE

Café Riza sits at 7 Ntshekisa Road in New Brighton, opposite the New Brighton Police Station.

And perhaps that location says more than we initially realise.

New Brighton has always had stories.

Stories of struggle.

Stories of resilience.

Stories of music, culture, faith, family, food and people who found ways to build lives and communities under circumstances that were not always kind to them.

Today, we must also tell the stories of the people who are creating new possibilities from within that same community.

Café Riza is one of those stories.

It is a business.

It is a restaurant.

It is a meeting place.

But it is also part of a growing conversation about how New Brighton can welcome visitors, celebrate its heritage and create experiences that people want to come back to.

That conversation is already happening. In March 2026, Café Riza hosted an African Food Festival as part of its launch, with the event being recognised as contributing to New Brighton’s developing township tourism offering.

And I like that.

Because we should not only tell the world what our communities lack.

We should tell the world what our communities are creating.

FROM THE VISION TO THE TABLE

When Vuyokazi first shared her vision with me, Café Riza was not yet the story it is today.

That is why I find myself smiling as I write this.

Sometimes you meet someone at the beginning of a journey and you can see something in them before the rest of the world sees the finished product.

You listen to the idea.

You listen to the ambition.

You listen to the dream.

And then, somewhere down the line, you get to sit back and say:

Yoh, Miss V. You were serious.

The vision had a deeper pipeline all along.

Today, Café Riza’s story is one of food, heritage, hospitality and African identity — but it is also a story about entrepreneurship and what becomes possible when someone takes an idea seriously enough to build it.

That is why ECLIVES.online is reintroducing Café Riza.

Not because Miss V needs an introduction to us.

But because perhaps the rest of the city — and the rest of the world — needs to know what is happening here.