BUSINESS AND FRANCHISING
F O S T E R C E S S S E C SUC S N E E U Q N E E B E VETERAN SH at large, to a g with the community tin ra bo lla co d an ks their success ugh setbac Queen veterans share n ee eb From persevering thro Sh e re th , es with the tim willingness to change stories with us.
close everyone down,” Fanny says. “We convinced him to give us a chance to work together.”
By Michelle Randall
Fanny founded Liquor Traders Against Crime (LTAC) and focused her efforts on combating alcohol-related crime in Meadowlands. Within three months, crime saw a massive decline, and Fanny extended her efforts to other police stations in Soweto. When she relaunched her tavern, Fanny decided it was time to expand her business model to include other offerings. Recognising an opportunity in the form of the World Summit, Fanny branched out to include a restaurant on the premises and spearheaded the demand for packaged tours. She founded the National Tourism and Hospitality Association (NTHA), which has since grown to include 25 branches across Gauteng and the North West Province.
Fanny Mokoena
F
anny Mokoena (63) of Fanny’s Restaurant and Caterers in Meadowlands, is easily the most recognisable among South Africa’s tavern veterans. At 63 years of age, the founder of Liquor Traders Against Crime, as well as founder and President of the National Tourism and Hospitality Association attributes her success to perseverance and collaboration. As a school girl, Fanny lived with her sister, who ran a shebeen. After school, Fanny went on to work for a travel agency, but when her sister died - leaving behind four young children Fanny was forced to step in. “I needed to put bread on the table,” she says, adding that she was among the fortunate few at the time to be awarded a tavern license.
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Less than ten years later, in 1997, Fanny suffered a major setback. She was declared insolvent over a mere technicality and forced to undergo financial rehabilitation before being able to trade again. As a woman in a male-dominated industry, Fanny found it difficult to ask the right kind of questions that could have prevented this failure however she turned this negative into a positive and subsequently established an association to support women entering the shebeen business. Her collaborative nature came to the fore in 2000, when the then station commissioner at Meadowlands called a meeting with tavern owners to address the alcohol-related crime statistics in the area. “Commissioner Snyman wanted to
For Fanny, expanding her tavern to focus on food was more than a mere business decision. “I was tired and wanted to move away from the day to day selling of liquor, and was lucky enough to be able to do so,” she says. Fanny’s Restaurant and Caterers hosts stokvels and social gatherings, and is usually booked out by locals from the surrounding community. Fanny shows no signs of slowing down though. She cites the NTHA’s many success stories as proof that achievement is only gained by working together towards common goals. “I like working with and helping people,” she says, adding that the NTHA has made massive strides towards uplifting the community. In 2014, the association launched a catering school to provide skills for the hospitality industry. The school’s first successful graduates, who gained an accredited certificate in Professional Cookery (Level 4), are already working in the sector. Fanny says: “Nowadays, women are more fortunate in that they have greater access to guidance than we had starting
