In a bid to preserve ancient traditions and create employment while at it, entrepreneur Reitumetse Kholumo founded Kwela Brews, a for-profit social enterprise that supports home brewers of traditional African beer to produce customarily nutritious beverages safely, efficiently and profitably.
Founded in 2021, Kwela Brews collaborates with home brewers of traditional African beer, also known as umqombothi. It also acts as a distribution channel by taking the traditional beer to events, markets and local restaurants, in this way enabling market access for home brewers.
According to Kholumo, her business benefits women of Kayamandi township who have, for centuries, turned to home brewing to generate an income for themselves. Growing up in the Free State with her grandmother, who herself was a home brewer, and with the aid of her studies in chemical engineering from the University of Cape Town (UCT), she wanted to find a way to produce traditional beer better and preserve the tradition.
“Over the years traditional home brewers have been neglected by the alcohol industry, so our business gives them a platform to improve their product and introduce them to other markets.”
The business had an official launch on April 29, which Kholumo described as a success, as the home brewers had an opportunity to see how their consumers were engaging with their product. However, before this the Kwela team spent the last year conducting market testing by attending jazz events. This was symbolic of the origin of the name Kwela, which is predominantly known as a popular jazz dance of the South African townships. “Kwela-kwela” was also slang for a police van, so Kwela also reminds one of the history of police harassment of women, who were home brewers in townships across South Africa.
“Traditional beer is a part of our history that feeds into the storytelling,” Kholumo said, “but many people have not tasted traditional beer before. So market testing allowed us to tap into those territories unknown to so many South Africans who don’t live in townships as well as international people.
“Our consumers are people who appreciate indigenous knowledge systems and appreciate indigenous food. Traditional African beer is high in vitamin B, amino acids and probiotics (because it is sold while fermenting). It is also a wholesome part of our tradition that we at Kwela Brews are trying to continue.”
The social entrepreneur described her entrepreneurial journey as one that is beautiful and that has taught her quite a lot about her resilience.
“I know that whatever hurdles may come I will always rise above them and stay true to my goals. I have also learnt to lean on the village, as they say it takes a village to raise a child, and it has really taken a village to raise Kwela Brews.”
Kholumo added that starting a business when young is a great idea because one still has so much room to grow and evolve. Because she is still a student (completing her master’s degree in chemical engineering at Stellenbosch University) and the only team member of Kwela Brews, she has found her studies end up monopolising her time, and she wishes she had enough time to focus on the business. It is something that led to the business going through a phase of start-stop and eventually starting again.
Although still fairly young, the business reached some remarkable milestones, from partnering with the Amazink Live in Kayamandi to winning the Social Innovation Idea Prize in 2021, hosted by the SAB Foundation at UCT, and also receiving a feature in Forbes Africa.
Technology has played a major role in the growth of Kwela Brews and has helped tackle unemployment in townships. The business uses lab testing for now to ensure no harmful substances are in the brews, but brewing machinery is in the pipeline.
“In future we would like to see Kwela Brews partner with more restaurants, such as the Amazink Live, and offer traditional beer on demand,” noted Kholumo. “We also want to collaborate with the Stellenbosch pop-up markets. By doing so we enable market access to our home brewers, thus creating more employment opportunities.”
