By Beatific Gumbwanda
CHIREDZI-Chiredzi Town Council recently assured its stakeholders that Zimbabwe’s largest beer garden, Chigarapasi, which was closed on September 30, 2024 following the expiration of the operator Big Five Beers’ lease, will be reopened soon after following the proper tendering procedure.
Initially, the council closed down Chigarapasi in December 2016 in compliance with a Ministry of Local Government, Public Works, and National Housing directive that stipulated that non-profit-making entities were to be closed.
This led to an outcry as over 1000 families were making a living from the beer hall and the local authority resolved to lease the property in 2017.
Big Five Beers had been operating the beer garden since then until the expiry of the lease prompting the closure of the beer hall awaiting another tender process.
Speaking to journalists during the Chiredzi Town Council media engagement at Clevers Hotel recently, CTC Chairperson Jameson Charumbira said the tendering process of the beer garden would be held soon.
“I want to assure you that we have not yet awarded anyone with a lease to operate the Beer garden, but we are in the process of assessing the situation at the beer hall before we tender. As councillor, we are not involved anyhow in the tendering process, and I would like to inform you that due diligence will be taken before awarding anyone with the lease,” said Charumbira.
Chigarapasi beer hall opened doors in the early 1980s mainly as a recreational place for the low-income earning workers in the Lowveld sugarcane industry and seats on16 273 square meters.
