Tavern owners are notoriously known to be carefree people only eager to make a quick buck, but Thandi Luruli of Thandi’s Tavern in the Far Eastbank is a taverner of a different kind.
Besides running her tavern, Luruli is also heavily involved in helping her community with various charity work. She runs a feeding scheme for children from her home and also runs an HIV/Aids awareness programme from her tavern which involves the free dispensation of condoms.
Luruli said she was once a shebeen queen, but she now runs a registered tavern and orders her beer from South African Breweries, which helps her run the HIV/Aids programme. The National Department of Health, the South African Business Coalition on HIVAids and the Society of Family Health, are also involved in the programme.
“As a taverner this is my only way of contributing towards saving lives from the ravages of HIV/Aids,” said Luruli. “It makes good business sense not just to chower the profits of beer sales but also to be a good and responsible citizen who has the well-being of your customers at heart.
When her customers have had a few bottles of the Dutch courage, they would say to her ‘you have saved our lives’. “When we are drunk we tend to be reckless and take chances with our lives, but with these condoms, we have learnt to be responsible drinkers,” the patrons would say.
“So have I too,” added Luruli. “I have learnt to a responsible liquor trader who does not sell to minors. I always imagine if that minor was my own son or daughter, how would I feel. One of the principles of being a responsible liquor trader is knowing that my neighbour’s child is my child. Anything bad happening to that child should resonate in the same manner if it happens to my own flesh and blood.”
Luruli is also the founder of Sinethemba Daycare and Feeding Scheme for the less fortunate children of her community. “Selling liquor is only a means to survival in order to put a plate of food on my table and for these kids I care for.
“My greatest love and passion is these children and to see to it that their tummies are full, and they are happy and healthy as they are supposed to be. I believe all my actions of dispensing condoms and running the daycare and feeding scheme for children has helped save lives, though I do not have the means to quantify this,” she concluded.
