Cape Town – With a deaf younger sister, it was especially meaningful for Western Cape premier Helen Zille to open South Africa’s first deaf-run coffee shop on Tuesday.

After eyeing a tower of macaroons on the counter of “i love coffee” in Claremont, housed in a gym, it was not long before Zille had learnt how to ask for a cappuccino in sign language.

“So when you’ve eaten all the pastries, you can work it off here,” she said to laughs.

The shop’s founder, Gary Hopkins, said he wanted to break down communication barriers between the hearing and deaf communities.

It was not about sympathy and pity. The shop was a celebration of entrepreneurship and big ideas.

He was grateful and overwhelmed by interest in their shop from around the world.

Source: http://www.news24.com