Wal-Mart Wine Deal Erases Seven Sisters’ Apartheid Legacy

(Bloomberg) - Vivian Kleynhans strides into the Spier Hotel nestled in Stellenbosch’s winelands, her winter boots clipping on the tiled floor. Looking at home in this four-star establishment about 25 miles east of Cape Town, she’s come a long way since her childhood in a remote fishing village.

“Growing up we were very poor,” saus Kleynhans, 49. Thanks to Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT)’s decision to import her wines, Kleynhans and her six sisters, who were once crammed into a two-roomed fisherman’s cottage along with her brother and parents, will soon make more money than ever. “Maybe the time has come for us to be able to take a break and enjoy life,” she said.

The change started when the world’s largest retailer bought a 52 percent stake in South African retailer Massmart Ltd. (MSM)in June 2011 for 16.5 billion rand ($1.68 billion). Worried that the U.S. company would swamp the local market while cutting jobs, South African antitrust authorities demanded Wal-Mart set up a supplier-support fund worth as much as 200 million rand.

Part of South Africa’s colored population, Kleynhans and her sisters weren’t given economic opportunities until apartheid ended. They grew up in Paternoster, a bay an hour and a half north of Cape Town, where picking mussels off the rocks was sometimes the only way to put a meal on the family’s table. Most of them didn’t complete school and have found it hard to make ends meet as adults.