An energy drink promoting Cape Flats culture was launched in Westlake on Heritage Day.
The idea for the Duidelik energy drink was born during lockdown, according to the owners of local company Kaapse Bru, Alistair Bunding, of Hanover Park, and Hylton Mitchell, of Strandfontein.
The drink comes in a 500ml can and costs R15. At the Westlake Business Park, Mr Mitchell said the drink would inspire people to believe in themselves, their communities and their dreams again.
Mr Bunding echoed that, saying the drink promoted positive change.
The back of each can features a brief story about Cape Flats heroes from the worlds of political struggle, sports, fashion, the arts or academia.
The beverage also highlights violence, gangsterism, poverty and other social ills plaguing the Cape Flats.
Each can comes with an anti-gender-based violence sign, and
Mr Bunding said it was personal cause for him as he had grown up in an abusive home, like many other children from the Cape Flats.
Mr Bunding said he hoped the energy drink would give young people on the Cape Flats pride in themselves and a community that had produced role models such as Benni McCarthy and Desiree Ellis.
Carl Appels, of Mitchell’s Plain, said: “When it’s Heritage Day, every year people think that we don’t have a culture as coloured people. Look at civvies day (in schools), little kids will wear an Adidas tracksuit and put black tape on their teeth to say that’s coloured culture. Some kids will wear the auntie rollers and put gowns and slippers on, but there’s more to us than that.
“There’s so many unforgotten heroes who fought for us. They come from the Cape Flats. People don’t know about people like Ashley Kriel, who was so young and died for the cause. He represents the young fighters from the flats.
“There are many others. I’m happy that this thing will celebrate our people.”
The logo for the drink is the toothless smile known as the “passion gap”.
Mr Mitchell said it resonated with the Cape Flats community, and his father had also had no front teeth.
Deciding to use the image as the logo, he said, had been about taking back power over something that people often made fun of when referring to people from the Cape Flats.
Using the passion gap was an ode to many of the working class in the Cape Flats and was meant to empower them.