The Sunday News
Bruce Ndlovu, Sunday News Reporter
ALCOHOL stokvels have gained popularity during the Covid-19 necessitated lockdown, with hosts making a killing as patrons seek alternative drinking spots while pubs and bars are still closed.
Omabhija (drink up), as the stokvels are known, have come a long way from the time when they were just an occasion for a few friends to binge away.
Moving from house to house or suburb to suburb, omabhija are now a weekly phenomenon in Bulawayo as patrons seek the thrill of socialising with other people as they drink, while hosts have their eye on making a small fortune from the occasion. While they were the preserve of shebeen queens in the past, younger people, both men and women, have been joining in recently.
“If your things are in order and it is well organised, there is a lot of money to be made,” a man who recently hosted one such party told Sunday News anonymously.
“For example, I organised my gig in five days so I didn’t have a lot of time to look for my own things but I made a net profit of US$500. If you have your things in order you can walk away with as much as US$1 000.”
According to the host, how much profit one makes depends on whether they can finance their own stokvel or not.
“It depends on whether you have your own alcohol or you ‘borrowed’ it from someone. If you have your own alcohol and your own returnable bottles, there is a lot of money to be made but if you are borrowing from someone, your percentage cut is smaller. It basically means that you’re working for that person even though the gig is under your name. Of course, inside you can sell Heineken or Castle Lite but the beers that move in volumes are your Zambezi quartz. That’s the booze that makes you money,” the host said.
For a recent stokvel in Cowdray Park that this reporter saw an invite for, patrons were asked to pay US$5 at the door in exchange for a plate of food and two beers. Once the beer ran out, they then would have to start paying for any extra alcohol that they wanted. A face mask was said to be mandatory at the entrance. According to a source with an intimate knowledge of omabhija, their popularity always increases when there is a change of currency or scarcity of beer.
“This phenomenon comes about when the country undergoes currency changes and alcohol becomes scarce for one reason or the other. It’s basically about pooling resources. The original name was uBhija Baswabe, meaning just outdrink everyone else. So, what happened was, originally, everyone would all bring their beers and we would pool them together and start drinking. We wouldn’t care who brought this number of beers.
“The one who drinks the fastest is the one who drinks the most. The idea was then refined further. We started seeing the birth of clubs. There would be a club with members that pool together money and raise what they call the float. With that float they would buy alcohol and then people that are not members would then join at a fee of US$6 and at that time that amount would get you six beers. They would then add those six beers to what had been purchased using the float money,” the source said.
Omabhija have since undergone a makeover since those early days, with business minded imbibers seeing an opportunity to make quick money, especially during the lockdown.
“The concept was that if you get drunk, you’ll spend more. There will be women there and so on so once you get drunk you want to impress (women), you suddenly become flashy. You’d have drunk from the pool alcohol and when that runs out, you start buying from the club member hosting people that day. So, the club member would have made the float money, which belongs to the club, from the alcohol you would have pooled together and the money others used to join. So, he gives back the members their float money and whatever else he would have made from sales now becomes his/her own profit. Whatever happens during that session, the float money has to return to the club members as it is,” the source said.
The more numbers one can attract, the more successful they are, the source said.
“This is why it was a concept that was embraced the most by shebeen queens because they already had a clientele. But things have changed now you even have younger guys joining in. This is because it is just a quick way of making money. The more people you have, the more money you’ll make. It is especially better if you have guys with deeper pockets. Guys who can spend. Even money changers have joined the craze.”
