MARTIN MAWAYA
GWERU-Gweru City Council (GCC) owned iconic Go Beer Breweries which has been defunct for the past nine years is now being resuscitated into a water bottling plant and will be renamed Go Aqua Bottling Company.
GCC Business Development committee minutes presented in the ordinary full Council meeting held recently indicated that the new venture’s target is to produce 100 000 bottles of water per month.
Under the proposal which was approved by Council, the initiative requires an injection of USD18 000 for extra on site equipment and sprucing up of the existing infrastructure.
On the proposal, Harare Institute of Technology University (HIT) will provide the necessary equipment and expertise required.
Go Beer Breweries which was reeling under a debt of USD2, 6 million closed shop nine years ago as a result of mismanagement and looting.
However, the new project is expected to rack in revenue for the local authority according to Councilor Jefta Zvidzai’s presentation to the full council meeting.
The committee noted that the surge in the consumption of purified water was “as a result of poor tap water quality, increased health consciousness, increased tourism as well as the increased frequency of physical meetings and conferences across country”.
It further noted that the city council has strategic selling points and has raw water in abundance, a major raw material needed for the production of bottled water.
The local authority is targeting to supply local supermarkets, informal traders, individuals, corporates and business partners as well as other sister local authorities in the Midlands province.
Gweru Residents and Ratepayers Association (GRRA) director Cornilia Selipiwe applauded council decision to convert the dilapidated brewery plant to a viable income generating project.
He said utilizing the existing infrastructure at the Go Beer plant will save Council a lot of money.
“Council should not continue buying bottled water designed and made by other companies from other areas when the city has the infrastructure and capacity to do the same,” he said.
Selipiwe added that city fathers should also come up with other innovative income generating projects that bring revenue to the city of progress.
He said residents are excited that the local authority is now being progressive and innovative than to wait for rates from the ratepayers.
However, David Chikore said “until concrete steps towards its implementation have been made, we opt to maintain our traditional guarded optimism because we have seen many good ideas going unimplemented over the years”.
He pointed out that at times residents’ hopes are dashed by the management at the Town House whom he accused of being corrupt when implementing such high value deals.
