Published by the government of Zimbabwe
10 January 2009
Harare — THERE has been a boom in Harare's nightlife with the mushrooming of open-air joints in the capital dealing a death blow to some nightclubs.
In recent months, most open-air joints including The Kebab Centre, Globe Trotter Motel and Pamuzinda have enjoyed brisk business while nightclubs were struggling to stay afloat.
In a survey carried out by The Herald, long winding queues along Enterprise Road where The Kebab is located could be scene as revellers thronged the joint.
The more than a kilometre-long queues rendered the road virtually impassable.
Only last weekend, the Kebab was a hive of activity as scores of music lovers thronged the venue to witness a gig featuring Oskido, a South African kwaito DJ supported by Harare DJs T Bass and P Styles.
It was the same scenario at Globe Trotter Motel along Old Mazowe Road where revellers were treated to old skool jams from the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s.
Elsewhere, Pamuzinda Highway Xscape patrons had their cars parked along Bulawayo Road after they failed to secure parking within the premises.
However, the reason revellers were attending to open air joints was that beer and soft drinks were affordable than those from the nightclubs that charge as much as US$2 per can of beer compared to US$1 at open-air joints.
For those with expensive tastes, they have to fork out anything between US$2 to US$4 while entrance fee will be US$10.
This is in sharp contrast to the open-air joints that do not charge entrance fees leaving patrons with dollars to spend on drinks.
Eddie Zviitwa -- popularly known as Eddie Kebab -- said open air joints were now popular among revellers as their beer and soft drinks were reasonably priced.
"The main thing is there are so many entertainment venues at the moment, but some of their services are not reasonably priced.
"We have cut down on our prices and patrons are paying an equivalent of a dollar for a can of beer while in our restaurant dinners are paying an equivalent of US$5 and that's the main catch," Zviitwa said.
At Kebab, he said as far as entertainment was concerned, the venue was meant to be a pre-club hangout although here and there music lovers would stay for longer hours.
"We host all the Harare top Djs the likes of Dee Nice, Dee Vine, T Bass, P Styles and Mos Deezy. We also bring in South African top entertainers like Oskido and for valentines there is going to be imported champagne," Zviitwa said.
He said there were plans to bring in Jah Seed of Bongo Maffin for Easter Holidays and DJ Shortie also from South Africa.
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