There is always light at the end of the tunnel. That age-old expression fits perfectly for the 2020 Wild Bean Café Design-A-Cup winner, Kabelo Diphoko, who gave his studies new life after winning this national competition. After nearly quitting his studies at the NWU for financial reasons, Kabelo took a chance when he entered the competition – a move that paid off handsomely.
Kabelo’s uncle had been paying his university fees until the lockdown affected his financial situation; he couldn’t carry on supporting Kabelo. The student was facing the prospect of dropping out without completing his degree when he came across the Wild Bean Café Design-A-Cup competition.
Kabelo’s design was chosen as the ultimate winner and his prize of R100,000 towards his tuition fees plus an all-expenses-paid coffee experience for two in Tanzania had a great impact on his life.
“I was worried about how I would pay for my third and final year at university and this has now answered my prayers,” Kabelo said. “It will also help me get jobs and it is such an accolade for me. This is mind-blowing and I am so proud; I cannot thank BP enough. It’s such an honour to be able to have designed the coffee cup that millions of South Africans will drink from at the BP Wild Cafés.”
The remarkable, eye-catching designs will be featured on cups at more than 200 Wild Bean Café stores across the country for the next six months. The competition, themed ‘A Story in Every Cup’, attracted over 300 entries from 16 tertiary institutions around the country. The first phase was to gather authentic, inspirational South African stories that could be depicted on coffee cups. The second was to call on visual arts students to interpret them in their coffee-cup designs. In its second phase, the young artists could draw inspiration from the top-five Mzansi stories that were announced earlier in the year. Each of the top-five winning storytellers received a Wild Bean Café hamper consisting of a coffee machine, a supply of Wild Bean Café coffee beans and a R2,000 BP shopping voucher.
Kabelo’s design took inspiration from the story submitted by Nicolle Rams, which highlighted the different South African languages and crossing cultural boundaries through language. His design was bold and colourful.
“We have 11 official languages in our country and I included them all in the design. So, whoever has a cup of coffee can identify their culture in the drawing. I have also brought in the diversity in the country. There are a shack and a graduate, depicting that no matter where one comes from, we can all make it,” he said.
Second-placed Gayla Raff, a 20- year-old graphic design student at the University of Johannesburg, depicted Hope Moteane’s story, which highlights South Africa’s cultural diversity through language and ethnicity. In third place was Ashton Heldsinger, a final-year student at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology. For her design, she chose Chantel August’s Mzansi story, with the theme of evolution in music – from traditional African beats to modern sounds. Her design included South African musical instruments and dance, from traditional dances to Pantsula and the newest Qgom dancing.
