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NewsDay

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Byo’s Club 09 serves last orders, as economy crumbles

Life & Style
ONE of Bulawayo’s pleasure spots, Club 09 has buckled under the heavy load of the current economic crisis, forcing proprietor Themba Masuku to shut its doors.

ONE of Bulawayo’s pleasure spots, Club 09 has buckled under the heavy load of the current economic crisis, forcing proprietor Themba Masuku to shut its doors.

BY SINDISO DUBE

The club officially closed last Friday and the management immediately opened another club, Euphoria, in the border town of Plumtree hoping for better prospects.

Nestled at the basement of Montecarlo Centre along Fife Street, the night club which was formerly Hustlers, re-opened at the beginning of the year, but has failed to see the end of its business year.

“We had plans on shutting down the place for some time because I was venturing into another business in Plumtree so I had to close one of my bases and it had to be Club 09, which I believe was not making a lot compared to other places I run in Gwanda,” Masuku told NewsDay Life & Style.

“The hyper-inflationary economy made it worse for us to continue trading. It is bad for everyone at the moment. The foreign currency rate against local currency is not stable, hence affecting pricing and product availability. It’s hard to change prices on our customers after every stock delivery.”

Masuku said it did not make business sense to keep the place open, hence the decision to close it.

He was, however, optimistic that the new venture in Plumtree would be profitable.

“We will change the face of showbiz with Euphoria. It will be a place where patrons get all sorts of fun and joy, we want to have patrons as far as Botswana coming to have good fun in Zimbabwe,” Masuku said.

A snap survey by NewsDay Life & Style revealed that hyper-inflation has forced the usually jovial party animals to desert pleasure areas in Bulawayo.

Last weekend saw the usually packed night clubs closing as early as midnight, due to low turnout of imbibers. Staffers at the recently opened Centre Pub at the top floor of Bulawayo Centre were seen cleaning up at around 11:30pm with only five people left, forcing the patrons to shift base to another club.

Zarah Lounge and Crystal had a relatively fair crowd on Saturday night, though some of the revellers bemoaned the high costs of beer.