“When we read, we are able to travel to many places, meet many people and understand the world.”
This how the first democratic Sate President the late Nelson Mandela beautifully captured the essence of reading, and this powerful statement highlights how books serve as gateways to diverse experiences and perspectives.
The essence of the late State President quote played itself out this week on, 24 April 2025, interested community members, authors, publishers and book sellers across the West Rand descending on the Kagiso Library precinct to share ideas, knowledge and notes on how to write and publish books, with copyright as the main objective of the event.
The event was held in partnership between Mogale City Library Services and University of SA (UNISA) Library, under the topic titled, ‘Book Talk: How to write and Publish fiction in your mother tongue’.
Despite the chilly weather and incessant rains that has recently engulfed the province of Gauteng, this never deterred the authors, publishers and book sellers to attend the auspicious event.
Otshepeng Moletsane, a PhD candidate who acquired his junior and senior degrees in seTswana, proudly encouraged the audience to be proud of their mother tongue and pleaded with the writers and up-and-coming or would-be writers to start writing and reading short stories in their mother tongues.
“I’m so humbled to be standing before you and talking about the importance of African languages. Our languages are dying, and we are the ones to blame for those languages to be going down the drain or being less spoke,” Moletsane said.
“I’ll soon be conferred with a PhD in seTswana and would appreciate if I can see more of our writers doing more writing in our mother tongues. All is not lost but, we can do that, and the time is now,” he pleased.
The event saw the Unisa Library Book Club rendering a play that seeks to show the importance of how language barrier can have an impact in communicating. Pemla Ditsele facilitated Book Talk and narrated a short story in seTswana much to the applause of the audience.
The 2025 World Book and Copyright Day was celebrated under the theme “The role of literature in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals”. World Book and Copyright Day is annually and globally held on 23 April.
The day is dedicated to celebrating the books and reading. The Day also recognises books as powerful tools that connect generations, preserve history and bridge cultures across the world.
Mogale City Library Services and Information Services Assistant Manager, Dr. Nthabiseng Raduvha, reminded the audience the importance of reading and writing and most importantly, writing books in our mother tongues.
“We are grateful that we have our stakeholder partner in making sure that this event goes well without any hindrance. Mogale City Library Services and UNISA has a long history of encouraging reading, writing and encourage our local people to make use of our libraries,” Dr. Raduvha emphasised.
“As the library service we want to see Mogale City developing into a city of readers, book writers as well as producing publishers. It is very much important, to also encouraged our kids to start reading and start visiting the local libraries,” she concluded.
Victor Mbuqe, UNISA Gauteng Region Library Services Manager, said the event creates enabling environment to learn and celebrate books and to encourage people to read and write and understanding the purpose of copyright.
Ofentse Lebethe, Mogale City Manager, Sports, Recreations, Arts and culture also added her voice and encouraged writers to use African language to promote and start writing reports in our languages.
As a token of appreciation in promoting the culture of reading, writing and publishing books. Unisa Libraries donated book to Kagiso Library.
Sipho None
Soweto Sunrise News
