Ahead of her MBA thesis defence, the Malondié founder opens up about fear, fireflies, and why she never stopped moving.
Katlego Sekhu
She opened a store in 2017 and never looked back. This week on Kaya Creator’s Corner, DJ Fresh and Thato Mataboge caught up with Londeka Buthelezi-Ndaba, founder of Malondié, one of South Africa’s hottest luxury fashion labels, for a conversation about pivots, purpose, and building a brand that outlasts a trend.
From Tourism to Law to Fashion
Buthelezi-Ndaba’s path to fashion was anything but a straight line. She picked tourism as a subject in grade 10 because it “seems like a cool class,” only to realise once she was in the industry that it wasn’t for her. She pivoted to law, and it was during her law studies that fashion found her, almost by accident.
“I started the fashion business where I was importing shoes and clothes and selling them into the country,” she said. The business grew alongside her studies, and by the time she completed her LLB, fashion had already taken over. “It kept on choosing me. I was excited. I loved being in that space. So yeah, that’s how fashion chose me.”
She completed her law practicals but never practised. Now, with an MBA on the way, she’s applying the same appetite for learning to the business side of her brand. “I realised that passion and creativity is not enough. I had to learn the business of business,” she explained. Her thesis tackles a problem she knows intimately: how to formalise South Africa’s fashion industry and build sustainable jobs within it.
The Woman Behind the Garment
Ask Buthelezi-Ndaba where her design philosophy comes from, and she’ll take you back to her mother’s Thursday teaching outfits. “That woman carries the clothes more than the clothes carried her,” she said. It’s a line that shapes everything she designs. “Which is why even when I design, I don’t think about the garment first, but I think about the woman first… and then from there create a garment that I know is definitely going to create confidence for her.”
Her boldness, she says, comes from her father, an entrepreneur who passed away when she was in matric. “So much of him is within the fingers,” she reflected.
Power of She, and the Vaseline Collaboration
Every August, Malondié releases a new collection, and this year’s, Power of She, is a tribute to the women who’ve carried the brand. Buthelezi-Ndaba built the collection around two childhood symbols: fireflies and sunrays. “I remembered how they used to glow in the dark. And I said to myself, that’s the power that women possess,” she said of the fireflies. The sunrays, meanwhile, are rendered as women themselves. “It represents that women give life… it comes alive. It’s bold. It’s brilliant. It’s beautiful. It cannot be ignored.”
That theme made Vaseline Cera-Glow, with its “glow from within” campaign, a natural fit. “It was a seamless collaboration,” she said.
It’s the same logic behind her other partnerships, including African Fashion International, Bernini, and Brutal Fruit. “It’s alignment. We have to look at what the brand represents,” she said, noting that her collaborations are almost always with brands that, like Malondié, centre women.
To hear the full conversation with Malondie, listen to the podcast.
Malondié’s Spring/Summer 2026 collection, Power of She, is available by the end of the week at malondi.co.za.
