The young Nelson Mandela was a regular customer in the 1950s, enjoying hot and spicy Indian food for as little as two shillings and six pence. Now Kapitan's is about to close after 120 years in business. The Kort Street restaurant was a Johannesburg landmark. Madanjit “Kapitan” Ranchod is the fourth generation of his family to have owned the restaurant. Nowadays the restaurant is only open only for lunch. Madanjit recently celebrated his 79th birthday and wants to retire next December to write his memoirs at his new home in Phuket, Thailand.
His great-father, Kesur Jivan Kapitan, was born in Fiji and worked on the ships that plied between that southern Pacific island and Bombay. He arrived in Durban in 1887 and opened the first Kapitan’s. His son, Ranchod Kesur Kapitan, opened Kapitan's Balcony Hotel in 1924/25 on the corner of Grey Street and Victoria Street. Ranchod went on to open a branch of the restaurant in Johannesburg in 1914. He returned to India in 1938 and his son, Madanjit's father, took over. Madanjit was born in Durban in 1926. He lives next to the restaurant in Kort Street. None of Madanjit's children is interested in taking over the restaurant.
Madanjit has been in the kitchen for 63 years and has cooked for people such as Aristotle Onassis, the Shah of Iran, King Faisal of Saudi Arabia and the Kuwaiti royal family. All the tandoori dishes are made in a specially made iron stove made by a Hungarian blacksmith in 1914. Other food is cooked on a large vintage coal stove or gas stoves. There are no microwaves. Kapitan's moved upstairs to its current location from the shop next door in 1959, when the Brazilian ambassador cut the opening ribbon. Kapitan then opened a restaurant in San Paolo and was a regular traveller to Brazil until he sold the place 9 years ago.
When Sir Seretse, the founding president of Botswana, was undergoing medical treatment in Johannesburg, Kapitan's was the only restaurant willing to accommodate his white wife Ruth and accompanying black cabinet ministers. Back then, 95% of Kapitan's trade was black but today it is 95% white. Nelson Mandela took Nomzamo Winifred Madikizela to Kapitan's on their first date.
Having been married a few times, Madanjit is still married to his Brazilian wife Marjorie or Marge (Margareta), who he married in 1959 and with whom he has 7 children. He has 11 children, including 3 sons - an engineer, a salesman and a music teacher. There are 13 grandchildren and 4 great-grandchildren.