Gweru City Council to revive Go Beer

GWERU City Council is investing US$2,3 million to revive the Go Beer brewery whose operations stopped many years ago.

The ambitious project is meant to boost revenue for the struggling local authority which is owed millions of dollars by its ratepayers.

The council has already put 23 hectares under winter wheat as it prepares to resume brewing traditional beer which used to be its cash cow .

The local authority said it plans to start with a target of producing 120 000 litres of traditional beer a day.

The Mayor, Councillor Martin Chivhoko said the revival of Go Beer brewery is crucial for the council’s revenue generation which will also improve service delivery as council will be having adequate resources.

“We are engaging an investor we intend to partner to revive the operations of our brewery because we want to resume producing our Go Beer brand as soon as possible,” he said.

Clr Chivhoko said the city council’s farm has 23 hectares under wheat which will be part of the raw materials for the brewery.

“Our aim is to produce our own raw materials for the brewery to make the business viable,” he said.

In July 2020, Gweru City Council announced that it had found an investment partner to revive Go Beer brewery but the deal fell through.

The council has beer halls in most suburbs and some of them are now white elephants while others have been turned into banking halls where residents pay their bills.

Clr Chivhoko said the local authority is exploring other sources of revenue to avoid relying solely on ratepayers.

“Right now we have City Park which is another revenue stream which is augmenting what we are collecting from ratepayers,” he said.