The Sunday News
Bongani Ndlovu, Showbiz Correspondent
ON Tuesday, many families in Zimbabwe joined the rest of the world in commemorating the birth of Jesus and after eating some delicacies at home and braaing at various spots, some Diasporans decided to paint Bulawayo red by patronising various watering holes.
However, when they got to these varied spots of pleasure, they were in for a rude and crude awakening as their ace in the pack, forex, was gobbled up in no time.
A group of four South Africa-based Zimbabweans that Sunday Leisure shadowed on that day revealed a sad tale of them trying to enjoy themselves in Bulawayo, their home city. They were travelling with three other relatives from Zimbabwe.
Their goal was to drink themselves to a stupor by guzzling large quantities of alcohol on that night but the bars were not that friendly on the pocket.
Carrying some cash (forex) and hearing that there were swipe machines in Bulawayo, they made a beeline to the most happening place in the city, the Bulawayo Athletic Club (BAC). This was where the seventh edition of the Diaspora Invasion Party which was headlined by Rabs Vafhuwi was held on the night. Since the event served as their (Diasporans) welcome party, most of them thronged the venue as this was the place to be for that night. Entering the show was their first hurdle as they were met by a $10 bond, $12 EcoCash or R100 entry fee and most opted to pay in forex. Upon gaining entry into the venue, they banked on their Visa Debit Cards to purchase their varied intoxicating beverages.
But they were in for a rude awakening as all of their cards were declined.
“We’ve been here for the past 30 odd minutes and trying different Visa cards to purchase alcohol. All of our cards (the four of them) were declined. You never know, maybe they were declined here and when we cross the border, messages will start coming through telling us that the transactions were processed,” said one of them called Bobby.
In no time, they were milling in the club, dry mouthed and complaining about having an airlock. The crew decided to try another nightspot to find a refill. Leaving BAC, they decided to go to Shisha Bar at Bradfield. Here, the place was already packed and bouncers were saying they would let people in when others come out.
Quizzed why it was so packed, the bouncer said besides the fact that it was Christmas Day, tribal house trio Djembe Monks were performing at the joint. Disappointed that they are still suffering from “airlock”, they decided to move into the city centre and try their luck at Zarah Lounge and Crystal. Both places were packed and equally had no Visa card facility. This was after another 20 or so minutes trying to find out if they had one.
“This is very disappointing. We patronise upmarket bars like these, we hope that they are more sophisticated and would’ve Visa card processing machines. We didn’t bring a lot of hard cash to Zimbabwe.
“Even if we had carried those wades of money, most, if not all would’ve been used up on family wants and needs. We’ve got fuel to buy, stands to pay for and other bills to help our relatives in Zimbabwe and they desperately need forex,” said another named Bulisani.
As a last resort, the crew decided to try out Copa Cubanna, just next door to Zarah and when they entered the venue, they were told that they accept Visa cards. In haste, they decided to buy the booze which cost them around $24 (R345), not bond or EcoCash or RTGS, green back.
They thought they had bought at least 12 Hunters Gold and when they went to collect their orders, they were given four Hunters Golds, much to their dismay. Asked why, the waiters told them that they do not rate the money as it is one is to one.
“We don’t cross rate here. Everything is one is to one here.”
This meant that they had bought four Hunter’s Gold’s for US$6.
“I think we should call it a night fellows. This isn’t sustainable. Imagine I spent nearly R400 for four Hunter’s Dry. In South Africa this is like 35 Rand in the club, the most. Here in my home country it’s too much, 100 Rand each, even though it’s in a bar it’s ridiculous,” said Netsai.
Later on after asking the staff they were told that forex it’s actually cheaper as they would have bought three beers with 100 Rand.
It seems that most nightspots were not prepared to host the Diaspora crowd as gone are the days that they carry loads of cash on them to spend in Zimbabwe during the festive season. So to entice them to spend, forex accounts should have been opened by these businesses and have a Visa card facility and fairly price their beverages. To show that their beverages were not priced well, there were people outside Club Cosmopolitan where the Kalawa Homecoming Club Version was being held on Thursday night walking around with alcohol in cooler boxes that they were selling to thirsty patrons who could not afford to buy in the club.
After all has been said and done, the crew decided to return to South Africa on Friday (yesterday) as partying in Zimbabwe, is in their own words, “painfully expensive”.
