OnTap Magazine

34 | Summer 2025 | ontapmag.co.za collaborations globally, and they recognized what we were building in Soweto. The '76 beer became something special, blending craft beer innovation with historical significance. It was a thing of beauty.” AN INSPIRATION It wasn’t just international brands and restaurants in affluent Johannesburg neighborhoods taking notice. Tsikwe Molobye first read about Soweto Gold online. At the time, he himself was just stepping a wary foot into craft beer, beginning as many do by brewing at home. He was in the process of figuring out how one goes about creating a brand and entering the industry and he came across a post about Ndumiso and his township- based beer. “I found themvery fascinating,” Tsikwe says, “because at the time, craft beer was still very white…And here I am seeing a black dude brewing beer…[in] Soweto! And I’m from Soweto as well!” This instilled in Tsikwe the belief that what he wanted to do was in fact possible. Shortly thereafter, he launched Stimela Brewing. He remembers getting to meet both Ndumiso and Josef at a beer festival in Johannesburg. “They were like rocking everywhere, they were very popular… Ndumiso was a charismatic guy, very funny, and we immediately started talking beer. [Eventually,] he became like an older brother in the industry for me.” The two even went on to do a few beer collabs together, including a sorghum wheat beer, which they sold at the “South Africa On Tap Craft Beer and Music Festival” in April of 2017. Ndumiso also became like a sibling to ApiweNxusani-Mawela, awell-knownfigure in the South African beer space, and the first black woman to open a microbrewery in the country. Apiwe met Ndumiso in 2006 at the University of Pretoria when she was doing her Honours in Microbiology. The University at the time was trialing a new brewing qualification, and Apiwe was part of their first group of students. One of the things they had to do was attend a class at the SAB Training Institute, where they were joined by folks either working or interning at SAB who were also taking the course, and Ndumiso was part of that group. “From memory, he was quite warm and welcoming…” Apiwe shares. “It was like having a “big black brother in the room.” Both Ndumiso and Apiwe worked at SAB but not together directly. “Throughout the years, we were in similar circles, pushing in different directions but doing a similar thing,” Apiwe says. After Ndumiso started Soweto Gold, he invited her to attend their official launch at the Soweto Beer Festival in 2014. She was there to support the initiative, but also to taste theproduct andprovideher honest feedback. At the time, she told him she thought the first batch was quite heavy and sweet, and a bit more “crafty” than mainstream. Though he was “craft”, he was still targeting a more mainstream market, so she thought it might be too complex for the latter. And it seems Ndumiso took her comments on board; over the years, they would discuss each other’s beers—often over a beer—and they valued one another’s opinions. Whenever Ndumiso was looking to launch a new beer, he would invite Apiwe to tasting sessions, and they would even occasionally discuss recipe development over the phone. Such was the nature and closeness of their relationship. HEINEKEN STEPS IN Soweto Gold eventually started producing beer in volumes at scale in conjunction with Windhoek, who in time started to hint that they may want to acquire a stake in the business. It was then that Heineken stepped in. According to Josef, “Heineken saw what we had envisioned for the brand. We [in turn] saw an opportunity to collaborate on distribution, sales, and marketing. After years of building the brand, we recognized that partnering with Heineken could take Soweto Gold to the national and potentially global level that matched our ambitions. The long-term dream was to go global, and Heineken provided the infrastructure and resources to make that possible while allowing us to maintain the brand's identity.” After the acquisition by Heineken in 2017, the production of Soweto Gold moved to a Heineken facility and the original Ubuntu Kraal location ceased operating as a brewing facility. When I myself visited Soweto in June of this year, and tried Soweto Gold for the first time, I was told that the beer can only be found there, in Soweto. After returning to Cape Town, I was surprised to spot it on the shelves at my local bottle shop in Claremont. A few weeks later, however, it disappeared. I asked around, but no one seemed to know the current status or production of the brand. I reached out to Millicent Maroga, Corporate Affairs Director at Heineken; over email she informed me that after the acquisition in 2017, Heineken had continued to brew Soweto Gold at their Sedibeng brewery until November of 2024. I asked if this meant that they were no longer producing Soweto Gold. She replied, “With our available brewing capacity, we've streamlined our production to select brands, whilst we are assessing opportunities to better position Soweto Gold, and other brands. We value the heritage of the brand, its originate and what it represents, and are proud to be associated with the brand.” It seems Ndumiso was perhaps still involved with the Soweto Gold brand after the sale; Phakama recalls that he may have played a role in marketing and promotion. This seems likely given that in July of 2018, the Soweto Gold brand took over one of the iconic Orlando Power Station towers. (The Orlando Power Station is a decommissioned coal-fired power station in Soweto whose Cooling Towers have become prominent landmarks for the township.) The giant artwork, which took over six months to install, was desgined by 25-year old Karabo Moletsane, and it reflected the life and culture of Soweto. At the well-attended celebratory reveal of the ‘Soweto Gold’ tower that July, Madlala proudly told Soweto Life Magazine that as a result of his brand’s relationship with Heineken, the beer would now be available nationwide. MOVING ON In 2019, Ndumiso founded yet another business called Eyethu Beverages, which was a “beverages special purpose company…created to invest in the alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages sectors… in South Africa.” On his LinkedIn profile, where it shows him moving from COO to CEO of Eyethu in April of this year, he writes as the description of his role: “I am here to disrupt the beverages industry. It's gonna be so much fun.” In September of 2025, only four months after the above post, Ndumiso passed away at the young age of 49 from liver failure. Right up until his passing, Ndumiso and Apiwe remained in close contact. He had asked her to help him with the new plant he was building through Eyethu. They had just received funding from the National Empowerment Fund (NEF) to set up a packaging plant and Apiwe had offered to help with the training of staff, among other Forbes feature on Soweto Gold