The Sunday News
Bruce Ndlovu, Sunday Life Correspondent
ON close inspection, one can conclude that Bulawayo is a city with a split personality.
By day, bustling vendors, elegantly dressed businesspeople and workers from an assortment of professions rub shoulders, as they try to eke out a living on the usually sunlit streets of the City of Kings.
On such afternoons, the mood is usually sombre, with many engrossed in their daily activities. The business of making a living is very serious after all and few, if any, take pleasure from the daily struggle to put food on the table.
After the sun sets, however, Bulawayo transforms, baring its wild side to whoever is brave enough to sample the delights that it offers after dark.
Those that trudged through the day suddenly acquire a buzz that they did not possess in the daytime. Trooping into various joints dotted around the city, they turn the City of Kings’ joints into hives bustling with activity, sampling the sweet nectar of the wise waters as they do so.
If anyone had any doubts about Bulawayo’s status as the go-to city for anyone is search of a good time, then 2016 served to quell them.
For show promoters, the year was a torrid one as people shunned most live performances. The likes of Patricia Majalisa, Sulu Chimbetu, Oliver Mtukudzi and other A-list stars performed in front of crowds that did not do their talents justice, as they were shunned by a city that seemed to have turned its back on any performer with a mic or guitar in hand.
Only Winky D and Jah Prayzah seemed to find rich pickings in Bulawayo, with almost every other performer forced to live off crumbs that fell from the two superstars’ high table.
While the year might have been dismal for promoters, proprietors of nightspots though would have an altogether merrier tale to narrate.
Joints were opened in the city at breakneck speed, with one official opening followed, almost immediately by another. What made all the various club openings all the more interesting was that they were of joints that all offer something different.
At the beginning of the year, Cloud Nine gave the first inkling that 2016 would be the year of the nightspot, as the joint found favour with patrons who took a liking to its snazzy new look and alluring waitresses. The joint died a quick but painful death as, embroiled in scandal it made way for Club 263 which was opened before memories of the joint it replaced had even faded.
The city’s nightlife got a radical facelift a few months later when Private Lounge, located deep in the bowels of Cecil Hotel, opened its doors and gave the city its first taste of the nude and raunchy delights that have made its Harare branch a key urban landmark in the capital.
Next in line was Copa Cubana, an upmarket joint sandwiched between two erstwhile Bulawayo drinking haunts, Pub Lagondola and The Lounge. Although it is relatively small, the joint has shook up the club scene in Bulawayo, proving to be just what the doctor ordered for the city’s young and restless who seem to have always craved a joint with such class and style.
Only a week after Cubana’s opening BAC Lounge also announced its re-entry into the city’s nightlife, looking to recapture its former glory in a highly competitive Bulawayo night scene.
With the year coming to a close, the club openings have not yet stopped in the City of Kings. Bulawayo is set to welcome another new baby in the form of Connect, a new city joint that is also promising to cater for those that love to have their drink and conversation in a classy, calm environment.
With so many new clubs, it is easy to forget what was already on offer in the city before the new entrants made their debuts.
While old giants like Club Forty40 fell by the wayside, other titans like Eden maintained their stranglehold on the Bulawayo night scene, while Hartsfield Tshisa Nyama maintained its reputation as the city’s outdoor nightspot of choice. Windermere made a roaring comeback, while in the city’s high-density suburbs joints like Mqombothi and Club Marisha maintained their popularity.
The spate of new club openings is particularly surprising considering the current economic situation in the country.
Delta Beverages last month announced that its profits had declined by eight percent down on the prior year as most of its segments recorded lower volumes on the back of depressed consumer spending.
Lager beer volume was down 11 percent on prior year as demand shifted to traditional beer and other cheaper alcohol offerings. With this being the case, sorghum beer volumes increased by six percent on the prior year while contributing 60 percent to Delta’s total revenue.
Lager and other relatively expensive brands of alcohol are staples at most of the nightspots mentioned above, and thus one wonders how the city’s clubs kept the beer flowing as pockets dried up.
For Private Lounge, 263 and Connect owner Biggie Chinoperekwei, the secret lies not in just pushing alcohol volumes, but in offering an all round entertainment package and experience.
“You’ve to think outside the box and be innovative. Traditionally people thought that all that one wanted when they go to a club was to drink beer but that is not the case. One has to offer an all round experience because just availing large quantities of alcohol will not cut it,” he said.
With so many new players, however, Tshisa Nyama owner Mduduzi Mdlongwa has in the past alluded to the fact as the temperature rises in the kitchen, not everyone will play fair.
“In such a saturated environment not all will succeed. It also means that clubs might resort to playing dirty. Not all the clubs will make money and see out the year. Someone will have to die,” he said.
With the prospect that the weaker may be outmuscled by competitors, it is uncertain if come the same time next year revellers will still have such a wide variety of clubs to choose from. However, what is certain is that as things stand, for anyone looking to have a good time, the City of Bulawayo is still chockfull of hidden and visible pleasures to please any night time thrill seeker.
