National Book Week fosters a culture of reading
The first Gauteng Regional Funda Mzansi competition was held at Boksburg Correctional Service on September 8, as part of National Book Week.
A total of 11 book clubs from various Correctional Services management areas participated this year, with offenders reading books written in different languages in front of a panel of judges.
National Book Week, celebrated across the country from September 7 to 13, is the brainchild of the South African Book Development Council, in partnership with the Department of Arts and Culture.
It aims to mitigate the findings the 2007 study that revealed that only 14 per cent of South Africans read books and over half of South African households (51 per cent) do not have a single leisure reading book.
Stoan Seate, who is the ambassador of the national reading campaign, encouraged everyone who attended the event to read books because it will make them more knowledgeable.
“By reading a book you can transport and transfer yourself into that world, so it stimulates your imagination and creativity. Playing games on your phone makes your mind to become stale.
“So, read to keep your mind active,” he said.
Book review categories were in English, Xhosa, Zulu, Afrikaans, SeSotho and SeTshwana. Offenders were reading a small piece for three minutes each.
Johannesburg Correctional Service’s Dinah Mokuene said prisoners are offered enough time on a daily basis to read.
“We give them books to take to their prison cells and we see a general willingness to read. No one is, however, pushed to read,” she added.
