South Africa’s Most ‘Abandoned Draughts’

Ilan Godfrey of New York Times and Washington Post fame, shoots almost 6,000 photographs as part of an unbiased investigation into the beers South Africans leave behind investigation shot by award-winning South African photojournalist Ilan Godfrey, has captured and analysed the half-finished beers left behind in bars across Mzansi.

Rather than relying on surveys or brand claims, the project turned real consumer behaviour into visual evidence, documenting what people actually leave on tables when nights move on.

Godfrey, whose work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post and The Sunday Times Magazine, approached the project using a fly-on-the-wall documentary methodology. Nothing was staged or interfered with.

“I treated it like any other documentary assignment,” says Godfrey. “You observe, you wait, and eventually patterns start to emerge.”

As the investigation progressed, Godfrey has found unexpected allies among waitstaff and bartenders. Fieldwork, he explains, depends on the contacts you make on the ground. In several venues, staff members began quietly alerting him to abandoned draughts before tables could be cleared, preserving the integrity of the scene.

The campaign blurs the line between journalism and advertising.

Godfrey is best known for his long-form investigative work on South Africa’s mining and extractive industries, which earned him the Ernest Cole Award and international recognition. He applied the same observational discipline to this project.

Godfrey treated this like any other investigation he would do for a major news story, keeping the brand at arm’s length to ensure an unbiased conclusion. The images are evidence, not commercial photography. The findings were confirmed by a third-party statistician, rather than the brand.

Across hundreds of frames – and almost 6,000 photographs – a clear pattern began to emerge. According to Godfrey, heavier beers, including a well-known Belgian import, appeared frequently among the abandoned glasses.

According to Colleen Duvenage, Brand Director Castle Lite, the project reflects a move toward culture-led, proof-based brand storytelling.

Duvenage adds, ‘Castle Lite is SA’s most loved draught by volume. But proving that our Extra Cold draught is more often than not finished to the last drop required an unbiased approach. We were curious about the investigation, but Godfrey ensured we didn’t interfere. He takes his work very seriously.’

When asked to comment on the brand’s position, Godfrey was unequivocal.

‘I don’t care about marketing,’ he said. ‘I’m just here for the truth.’

But uncovering the truth always comes at a personal cost for hard-bitten journalists like Godfrey. ‘Based on my observations and analysis of the photographic evidence, it is clear that people really do tend to finish a Castle Lite Draught,’ said Godfrey.

But such was the thorough nature of this investigation that the Castle Lite team insisted on having these results verified by a stats-inclined person who studied higher-grade things at an actual university.

After analysing the data by using techniques that include counting, the stats-inclined person agreed with Godfrey. The data suggests that Castle Lite Draught is approximately six times less likely to be abandoned. Perhaps this is because it’s always served extra cold,’

Godfrey says he agrees with this supposition. ‘I think the fact that, unlike other beers, Castle Lite Draught is served extra cold may well be the reason that people tend to finish it more often than beers that are not served extra cold. But my integrity as a journalist means that I cannot say this is the case without another investigation. And frankly, I am far too tired to launch another one right now. This investigation really took it out of me. Going out at night is tough.

But it is thanks to implacable journalists like Godfrey, willing to suffer like this, that the truth about vitally important social issues – like which beers are abandoned less often – is revealed.

Cold case closed. Castle Lite Draught is less likely to be abandoned because it’s served extra cold.