Petition: An urgent appeal for the sale of books during Lockdown Stage 4
A petition has been launched to appeal for the sale of books during lockdown stage 4.
The petition is hosted on the website of PEN South Africa, a branch of PEN International, a non-profit organisation that promotes literature and freedom of expression.
Read more about the petition below, and click this link to add your name:
An urgent appeal for the sale of books during Lockdown Stage 4
PEN SA is pleased to host the below petition following the open letter submitted to the South African Government about regulations regarding the buying, selling, and reading of books during Stage 4 Lockdown.
We invite all those who would like to support this call – writers, readers, publishers, members and non-members-to sign. Please be safe and keep reading!
27 April 2020
An Open Letter to President Cyril Ramaphosa, Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, and the South African National Coronavirus Command Council
The buying, selling and reading of books is an essential service
As published South African authors, and readers and writers, we are proud of and grateful for the sober, compassionate, and science-based leadership our government has shown during the Covid-19 pandemic. We are mindful of the difficult choices you have to make, every day, in an attempt to save both our lives and our livelihoods, and we have noted your call for public response to the proposed regulations governing the easing of the lockdown. It is in this spirit that we submit our request: that all books, and not just “educational” ones, be available for trade, at Level 4 of the lockdown.
The book industry was vulnerable even before the pandemic. We as a country are at great risk of losing not only our booksellers, but our publishers too. We are concerned about the jobs that will be lost, as well as the loss of vital cultural and intellectual space. This space will not be easily regained once the Covid-19 crisis is over.
From May 1, restaurants will be able to deliver cooked food. We understand the value of this, to the economy, the service industry, and consumers alike. We would like to urge that brain-food be delivered, too, as an essential service: not just so that writers can keep writing and publishers can keep publishing and booksellers can keep selling, but so that readers can keep reading, that new ideas can keep sprouting, and that the life of the mind of our country can keep growing.
Reading is one of the few art-forms that can be practiced at a social distance; it is a pastime that both encourages safe behaviour in the present and is an investment in our individual and collective future. University students, in particular, need uninterrupted access to books to prepare them for a meaningful contribution to the knowledge economy.
We are not being simply nostalgic when we say that there is nothing like a physical book: it distills, holds, and transmits knowledge like no other ‘device’. From the young child discovering the world through her first storybook to a grandmother, now alone during the lockdown, with only her books to comfort her, it is the foundation of our literate society. If we are going to ensure that our country continues to develop and strengthen a reading culture, we need to nurture and protect writers, publishers, booksellers and readers.
We have noted the new ways technology is being adopted because of the pandemic, and we understand that, in the future, there might be more trade in e-books and less in physical books. Still, publishers will be necessary to make those e-books, and so we don’t want to lose them. And, of course, the pandemic has put into sharp relief the digital divide. For a long time to come, e-books will not be an option for most South Africans, and for this reason the paper publishing industry must stay alive.
Of course, there are books in circulation already, and it could be argued that it is not essential for more to be bought and sold right now. We would disagree. To allow the book industry to trade right now is to give it a lifeline. Without that lifeline, we could well lose it. Forever.
In South Africa, purchasing a book is often a luxury, but many in the book community work to promote national literacy, to ensure that books are widely available for loan and purchase, and to promote the understanding that books are a necessity rather than a privilege. We would like to see emerge, out of this crisis, an opportunity for developing better book delivery at a community level, so that the key work already done to build literacy in South Africa will not be lost.
We do not ask that bookshops be open physically for business just yet. Rather, we ask for a simple addition to the current Level 4 regulations: that all books be available for purchase online or over the phone and for delivery, and that all booksellers, big and small, be allowed to trade.
All books are educational.
Signed
Nadia Davids
Mark Gevisser
Ronnie Kasrils
Sisonke Msimang
Njabulo S. Ndebele
Yewande Omotoso
Zukiswa Wanner
Harriet Perlman
Peter Delius
Lynton Francois Burger
Barbara Adair
Lize Albertyn- du Toit
Kate Alexander
Lucy Alexander
Jonathan Ancer
Gavin Andersson
Peter Anderson
Sally Andrew
Brett Archibald
Neil Armitage
Zaheera Jina Asvat
Adriaan Basson
Charlotte Bauer
Lesley Berry
Mark Berry
Lauren Beukes
Cynthia Bevan
Zelda Bezuidenhout
Hlumelo Biko
Albert Blake
Carole Bloch
Marn Bodenstein
Jill Bradbury
Kerneels Breytenbach
Nechama Brodie
Daniel Browde
Edyth Bulbring
Mary Burton
Ndukenhle Buthelezi
Penny Buseeto
Mike Cadman
Jonathan Cane
Andy Capostagno
Trevor Carnaby
John Cartwright
Alma-Nalisha Cele
Mukesh Chander
Ivor Chipkin
Yvette Christianse
Sean Christie
Jakkie Cilliers
Francois Cleophas
Stephen Clingman
Jacklyn Cock
JM Coetzee
David Cooper
Michael Cope
Sharon Cort
Ben Cousins
Karin Cronje
Jenny Crwys-Williams
Lindelwa Dalamba
Jude Daly
Achmat Dangor
Fezile Dantile
Carol Ann Davids
Nadia Davids
Rebecca Davis
Henrietta Dax
Jean-Pierre de Kock
Ingrid de Kok
Philippa Yaa de Villiers
Dirk de Vos
Fred de Vries
Shaun de Waal
Jessica Denyschen
Isobel Dixon
S. Dlamini
Khaya Dlanga
Ebbe Dommise
Dorothy Driver
Andrew Duminy
Hani du Toit
Nomathemba Dzinotyiwei
Chike Frankie Edozien
Hagen Engler
George Ellis
Zimitri Erasmus
Natasha Erlank
Martha Evans
Judith February
Andrew Feinstein
Melinda Ferguson
Brian Fredericks
Sibongile Fisher
Fiona Forde
Moira Forjaz
Roddy Fox
Damon Galgut
Dawn Garisch
Philippa Garson
Mark Gevisser
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Categories Fiction Non-fiction South Africa
Tags Books News PEN South Africa Reading
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