LAST ROUNDS CALLED AT SA’S OLDEST PUB

South Africa’s oldest pub, The Perseverance Tavern in Cape Town, might have to close its doors for good.

Persies, as its affectionately known, was founded in 1808 and is located on Buitekant Street.

It has since been a regular among sailors from Cape Town harbour and, over the years, it has become a popular waterhole for locals and tourists alike.

News24 reports that owner, James Charton, says the COVID-19 lockdown is to blame.

“The UIF and TERS helped us extend the help to staff through the three-month period, in April, May and June. Our thinking was that, at the end of the three months, we’d be moving towards an on-consumption licence again.

We have been holding on for that. But with the latest alcohol ban, we have had to take this painful decision.”

Twenty staff members will have to be permanently retrenched.

According to the pub’s website, the oldest vine in South Africa grew in the pub’s garden until the early 1900’s.

Over the years the pub has become somewhat of a museum, and it hosts the Cape’s earliest electric street lamps and historic portraits of The Mother City on its walls.

Watch the News24 video featuring an interview with the owner of The Perseverance Tavern below.

Image credit: Wikimedia Commons