OnTap Magazine

24 | Winter 2021 | ontapmag.co.za FEATURE the township is that it’s expensive. What we’re trying to do it to create a beer that bridges the gap between commercial and craft so we are very much trying to play in the premium price range rather than the craft price range.” Pursuing a completely new market is of course challenging, but it comes with moments of great satisfaction. “Our base audience started at zero so we are always going to see growth, which is great!” says Machode. The team’s five-year plan is to focus on Gauteng, opening their brewery and employing staff from the immediate area. There is a great emphasis on community upliftment, something that is echoed in another township some 60km north. LOCAL ICONS Thembisa is home to about 460,000 people but I doubt there are many as memorable or as passionate about their hometown as Sibusiso Skosana. Dressed in a branded red jumpsuit the ilk of which you would normally associate with formula one drivers, Sibusiso has lofty plans to bring tourism to his township. His brand – 1632Crafts – carries Thembisa’s postcode and there is no other place Sibusiso would want to meet to talk about his new business. “This is home,” he says proudly as we enter Thembisa. He points out places from his childhood – where he and his friends would chase rabbits, the route they walked home from school and we even briefly drop by the house where he grew up. His grandparents are at home but we don’t have time for much more than a quick salibonani , for Sibusiso has a jam-packed schedule mapped out. I’m in Thembisa for just a few hours and he wants to show me everything. We visit a soon-to-open pizza joint that will eventually sell Sibusiso’s brands, we pass by a few bustling bars where he’s hoping to get in the fridge and we stop for photos next to the iconic town sign, which makes it onto the labels of the 1632Crafts lager and cider. But this is all just preamble. Sibusiso really wants to take me to Thembisa’s most famous restaurant, Imbizo Shisanyama. Better known as Busy Corner for its location at a bustling intersection, the hugely well respected restaurant has been operating since 1997. Chefs work the vast braai pits but it is the owner, Rita Zwane that patrons really hope to catch a glimpse of. It is the sort of story movies are inspired by – maZwane, as she is affectionately known – started out with a shipping container and a two-litre pot in which she would prepare the pap to go alongside the now legendary shisa nyama. Today the restaurant has grown to three locations and hundreds of litres of pap are served with the marinated meats, but the original pot hangs from the ceiling at Busy Corner – where maZwane’s restaurant empire began. It is here that Sibusiso proudly points out his beer and cider, sitting in a prime spot in the middle of the fridge. “We are very proud of him,” says Koketso Mfusa, Imbizo’s events manager. “There is no way we’re not going to stock 1632 and I know for a fact that it’s going to be one of our biggest selling products.” IT BEGINS WITH BEER Before I head to my city-centre accommodation, there is one last stop to make. The Mall of Thembisa opened in late 2020 and while the timing wasn’t ideal it has been embraced by locals. As well as the usual chain stores, there is the Kasi Co-Lab, a shared space where local traders and artists can operate at affordable rental rates. And there is also a sizable branch of Imbizo – a supremely stylish two-floor restaurant serving the meat and pap the brand is known for. Rita Zwane is here and I suspect everyone wants a slice of her time, so we The original Imbizo Shisanyama sits at a bustling junction in the heart of Thembisa A 1632 lager to wash down a feast at Imbizo Shisanyama feel honoured when she briefly comes to join us. She is a vocal advocate of community upliftment, of supporting local, and so we feel honoured when she clearly sees great promise in Sibusiso’s business plan. “This is inspirational,” she beams, rolling a bottle of 1632 lager in her hand. “This is what we love to see.” Sibusiso holds maZwane in the highest regard and is obviously deeply inspired by her story of success. He too hopes to build a brand that creates jobs and that locals become fiercely proud of. “My goal is to have my own brewery by the end of the year,” says Sibusiso, whose beer and cider are currently brewed under contract. He also plans to add a standalone restaurant and to run tours, all with the goal of encouraging tourism to Thembisa. “But it all begins with the beer,” he says. “The beer is the anchor that is driving all of this. First we bring craft beer to the township and hopefully everything else will follow.”