The Cape wine industry is a significant contributor to Cape Town’s local economy.  The sector receives global press coverage and involves important clustering benefits, as is evident in industry conferences such as the annual Cape Wine 2025.  However, the wine industry is also associated with historical legacies of colonial and apartheid policies of land dispossession and labour exploitation, and still faces criticisms of its labour practices and the wider social impacts of alcohol abuse.[1] With very few exceptions, the sector remains white in ownership, management and control.

Like other industries in South Africa, the wine sector is dealing with expectations to promote “Broad Based Black Economic Empowerment (BBBEE / BEE),” a government policy framework aimed at growing black South Africans’ ownership and participation in the economy.

According to some black entrepreneurs who have started establishing wine businesses, such as Rosemary Mosia, there is no wine drinking tradition in black South African culture, which makes access to the industry even more difficult.

Efforts to make the wine industry more inclusive also come up against broader challenges in the sector. South African wines generally fetch low prices on international markets, despite their high quality. This has a range of historical reasons, such as an historical emphasis on selling bulk wines, as well as lingering negative perceptions of exploitative practices in the wine industry. Furthermore, climate change is making viticulture more difficult and riskier.

This is in this context that Lindile Ndzaba started Khayelitsha’s Finest Wines 8 years ago. Khayelitsha is one of the South Africa’s largest “townships”, situated just across a highway from the renowned winelands of Stellenbosch. Lindile is determined to “put the township on the map”[2].

By associating Khayelitsha to good quality wines, Lindile is seeking to develop a “wine appreciation culture” amongst the black middle class who grew up or lives in townships. Lindile would want to develop a culture of consumption (with moderation), as well as a sense of pride, ownership and empowerment.

Paradoxically, and although it is Lindile’s dream, Khayelitsha’s Finest Wines are not yet made or bottled in the townships. The wine is the outcome of a partnership with nearby wine estate Saxenburg, which also saw in Lindile the opportunity to grow a market and make its product more appealing.

Lindile’s wine has a good reputation in Cape Town and his wine is now exported to the USA.

[1] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/aug/23/south-african-wine-industry-misery
[2] The word “township” in South Africa refers to a residential area formerly reserved by law for Blacks during the apartheid era (1948-1994). Despite what may appear to be the case at first glance, they are very diverse and heterogeneous, not least in terms of habitat, demography and socio-economic profiles. A black aspirational middle class is nowadays emerging from townships all over the country, especially in affluent cities like Cape Town or Johannesburg.

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