Despite the return of a ban on alcohol, liquor is still widely available in the Kalahari as bootleggers try to outwit the police.
On 12 July, for a second time this year, the government introduced a ban on the sale of liquor, which had only been lifted on 1 June.
It caught most by surprise, which has resulted in many now obtaining alcohol from the black market, for both consumption and business, at double or triple the original price.
An underground tavern owner, who spoke to Kalahari Bulletin on condition of anonymity, weighed in on the issue.
This grandmother says her family tried to survive off her old age pension after her children had lost their jobs due to the Coronavirus lockdown.
She shares a shack with her two daughters, aged 22 and 20, and three grandchildren between the ages of 2 and 5 years old, in a growing informal settlement near a mining town.
Out of desperation she started brewing alcohol to sell.
With the money that was coming in from selling the home-made beer, brewed with yeast, she expanded her stock by buying a popular commercial beer from local taverns in large amounts and reselling it at a profit.
She says illegal shebeens like hers are more accessible to the community because legal taverns are closely watched by the police.
When asked if she was not scared of being caught, she said: “No. The president and his ministers have continued to draw a salary while our children lose their jobs. I’m sure they don’t even know what it is like when you can’t put food on the table.”
She says she knows she is breaking the law by brewing and selling alcohol.
“Life has been a struggle since the lockdown started, and we have no other way of surviving.”
- Read more on p 2.
