Three icons. One historic home. The Motsamayi Chef Collaboration Series brings together Sanctuary Mandela, Kruger Shalati and Chef Wandile Mabaso for a dinner unlike any other this Mandela Day.
In a year that asks South Africa to pause and reflect on extraordinary milestones, two of the country’s most storied destinations are coming together around a shared table.
Sanctuary Mandela — the former Houghton home of Nelson Mandela, in Johannesburg — and Kruger Shalati: The Train on the Bridge, suspended above the Sabie River on the historic Selati Bridge in Kruger National Park, announce a landmark culinary collaboration: From Kruger’s Kitchen to Madiba’s Table: An Iconic Food Journey.
The collaboration brings together three creative voices: Sanctuary Mandela, Kruger Shalati and Chef Wandile Mabaso, one of South Africa’s most respected chefs in contemporary African cuisine.
Together, they invite guests to experience a six-course dinner that moves between Johannesburg and the Kruger, between memory and landscape, between the life of a man and the wildness of a continent.
“He understood that the country’s wild places were more than landscapes alone. They formed part of a shared national inheritance.”
THE OCCASION
This year, Nelson Mandela would have turned 108. It is also the centenary of Kruger National Park — a hundred years of conservation stewardship, ecological care and the quiet insistence that wild spaces must be protected for those who come after us.
These two milestones share a common thread: legacy. Not as monument or nostalgia, but as living responsibility. Madiba spoke often of the importance of safeguarding Africa’s natural heritage. He understood that the country’s wild places — the rivers, the fever trees, the open plains — were not merely the backdrop to history. They were part of the inheritance every generation is asked to carry forward.
From Kruger’s Kitchen to Madiba’s Table: An Iconic Food Journey is an exploration of that inheritance — expressed through the most human of rituals: gathering around a table to share a meal. It is also the first in the Motsamayi Chef Collaboration Series — a platform that unites the group’s properties and South Africa’s finest culinary talent in experiences that go beyond hospitality into something more lasting.
THE EXPERIENCE
A dining experience unlike any other in Johannesburg this July.
On 17 and 18 July — the days surrounding what would have been Madiba’s 108th birthday on 18 July — guests are invited to take their place inside the house he called home. Each evening opens with welcome drinks, canapés and a guided heritage tour of the property before moving to the table for six courses and wine pairing.
Guests are seated together at shared tables — the way meals were always meant to be taken in this house.
THE MENU — A CULINARY JOURNEY IN SIX COURSES
Six courses. Each one inspired by one of the three collaborating voices — Sanctuary Mandela, Kruger Shalati and Chef Wandile Mabaso. Each one rooted in a story worth sitting with.
The menu moves between bush and city, between the wild and the cultivated, between the dishes Madiba cherished and the landscapes that shaped who South Africa is. It draws on indigenous ingredients, the memory of a kitchen in Houghton, the vast skies of the Lowveld and the creative language of contemporary African cuisine. Wine pairing is included throughout, selected in partnership with Boschendal.
The details of each course are best discovered at the table.
THE CHEFS
Chef Wandile Mabaso joins forces with two colleagues whose own kitchens carry the spirit of this collaboration forward: Chef Mordecai Brauns, Head Chef at Sanctuary Mandela’s in-house restaurant Insights, and Chef Vusi Mbatha, Executive Chef at Kruger Shalati. The two properties are part of the same family — both belonging to the Motsamayi Tourism Group — which lends the collaboration an unforced sense of shared purpose.
At Insights — rated the highest restaurant in Gauteng on DinePlan with a 4.8 rating, and known for its Dine Like Madiba experience — Chef Mordecai crafts menus in a tradition established in this very kitchen, rooted in the specific tastes and preferences Madiba was known to appreciate. He has been part of the Sanctuary Mandela kitchen since 2021, first as Sous Chef and now as Head Chef — a continuity that gives his cooking an intimacy with this house that cannot be manufactured.
At Kruger Shalati, Chef Vusi brings over a decade of progressive culinary leadership to a kitchen rooted in the landscape itself — his Kruger to Fork philosophy sources almost everything within thirty kilometres of the lodge, building menus around the indigenous ingredients and seasonal rhythms of the Lowveld.
Three chefs. Two iconic South African destinations. One table.
TICKETS & BOOKINGS
Tickets are priced at R2 500 per person, inclusive of the six-course menu, wine pairing, a welcome drink and a guided heritage tour of Sanctuary Mandela. Seating each evening is limited.
Bookings are open via DinePlan or directly through Sanctuary Mandela.
Three partners of this calibre. Two nights. One milestone year.
Book via DinePlan or contact Sanctuary Mandela directly: [email protected] | +27 10 035 0368 | WhatsApp +27 78 641 6061 | sanctuarymandela.com
SKILLS DEVELOPMENT
Beyond the dining experience, From Kruger’s Kitchen to Madiba’s Table embraces one of Mandela’s most enduring convictions: that education is the most powerful tool available for creating change. A dedicated skills development programme provides mentorship, training and hands-on learning opportunities for aspiring chefs and hospitality professionals — creating a platform for emerging talent to learn from industry leaders and gain exposure to world-class culinary and hospitality practice.
This dinner is more than it appears. As part of the Motsamayi Chef Collaboration Series, Kruger Shalati and Chef Wandile Mabaso are building toward something further — and guests at this dinner will be the first to hear what comes next.