Cape Town - The Motywas have been running a tavern in Site B Khayelitsha with some success for about 27 years – but now they really have the edge.
A total of 150 tavern owners in the Western Cape are ready to promote responsible tavern ownership and better business after graduating from the SAB national retailer business training programme this week.
Vuko Mtotywa, 21, of Mtotywa and Sons Liquor Store in Site B Khayelitsha, was one of them.
Mtotywa attended the graduation ceremony held on Wednesday at Newlands Brewery with his grandmother, Sylvia Mtotywa, and said in his view the programme had been relevant to what was needed in the community.
“It taught us things like how to bank, how to manage the business, correct pricing and to make sure customers consume alcohol responsibly.
“It has added to the skills which I acquired from my family who have been running it for more than 27 years,” he said.
The tavern owners of Caledon, Malmesbury, Strand, Khayelitsha, Gugulethu, Bellville and Langa, went on the Customer Business Development Programme’s four-day training programme to learn basic business skills, including how to plan and grow a tavern business and how to manage their personal finances.
The tavern owners were provided with certificates, and there are brewery plans to offer post-training business management support.
Targeting about 4 200 tavern owners across South Africa a year, the programme also seeks to seeks to raise awareness of their obligation to trade responsibly so as to maintain their licence.
Speakers at the ceremony included the MEC for Economic Opportunities Alan Winde and SAB enterprise development manager Refentse Shinners.
Winde said:
“The message here is clear – it’s about business and it’s about responsibility. Be ethical and responsible in the way you run your business and your customers will respect you. Follow your licensing conditions and keep your doors open to build a prosperous trading environment.”
Winde, reflecting on a live show featuring actor Patrick Shai which was part of the ceremony, said it had covered the negative side of tavern ownership, including selling alcohol to children and pregnant women and ignoring neighbours’ complaints.
Winde said alcohol killed about 300 people every day in the Western Cape.
“From my side, we must put rules and regulations in place to stop illegal trading. We will come down on guys who don’t want to be responsible. That guy that you helped to get home safely can still come back and be your customer tomorrow,” he told tavern owners.
Shinners said licensed traders made a valuable contribution to the economy of the country.
The training programme was piloted last year in the Western Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng, and the province’s roll-out was the start of an ongoing roll-out across the country.
Plans are under way to train more than 20 000 taverners by 2020 or about 4 200 annually, and SAB has so far invested R450 000 in the Western Cape and R12 million nationally in the programme.
It is an extension of the company’s Mahlasedi Taverner Development Programme which ran from 2004 until 2009 and reached more than 16 000 taverners, thanks to an investment of R54m.
Tavern owners who participated in that programme reported an increase in business performance.