Cape Town - A former illegal shebeen in Khayelitsha has been given a new lease on life after it was launched as a non-alcoholic eatery on Wednesday.
Now called Lavay’s Good Food, the outlet offers a range of gourmet pizza, burgers and chips after the owners James Bonda and his mother Lungiswa were approached by Distell’s development partner Supply Pal to be part of an initiative converting unlicensed liquor outlets into new, sustainable businesses.
James said the family business started in 2019 as a shebeen. This he said was despite his mother’s resistance, who cited safety reasons.
However, he said after resigning from his job he took it upon himself to lay the foundations of the business, and after seeing its success his mother joined.
Equipped with her passion for food, having worked in a top hotel as a private cook before losing her job, Lungiswa introduced fast food to the business.
James said they started with burger creation where customers customised their burgers and this gave birth to a wide range of burgers.
“We grew from there and introduced pizza. However, we initially experienced challenges because we had no appliances and with Distell’s help we managed to get proper equipment,” he said.
The food outlet now delivers to customers in the area and surrounds using another township innovation, Order Kasi, which does motorcycle orders and deliveries via a mobile phone app.
Distell Formalisation manager Zukiswa Gaqavu said to date 10 illegal shebeens in the area had been converted to formal businesses.
Gaqavu said while it was easy to open up a shebeen, the outlets didn’t adhere to laws and contributed to social ills.
“Lavay’s was one of the businesses that could not qualify for a liquor licence due to zoning, but showed a positive attitude and potential growth,” she said.
Supply Pal director Andre Titus said in conducting research in the over 5000 points of interest in Khayelitsha, they found out that of the 532 liquor traders 151 liquor outlets were licensed and 381 unlicensed. He said 31% of all the businesses were spaza shops and 90% of these were foreign-owned.
Titus said several shebeen owners reported that they had to close their spaza shops with the influx of foreign-owned businesses and started selling alcohol illegally, which he said was the only alternative available for them.
Titus said the mentoring and coaching programme offered would enable these owners to build sustainable businesses and ensure that they don’t return to selling alcohol.