South Africa is not short on conversations about education. What it lacks, though, is a follow-through. At a time when screens dominate attention spans and libraries quietly shut their doors, the dilemma is no longer whether literacy matters, but whether we are willing to protect it before it erodes even further.
This was the main issue at the centre of a recent discussion featuring Douglas Mark Ritson, CEO of BookBank South Africa, and Aisha Laher, attorney, author of Bamba Butterfly, and brand ambassador for BookBank South Africa and Multi-Marketing in Johannesburg.
What came up wasn’t just a sense of nostalgia for books, but an assessment of what happens to a society when reading becomes optional.
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The decline of the physical book
Ritson was direct about the challenge. Reading physical books is declining globally, and South Africa is no exception. But for him, the concern is not just technological change. It is what disappears alongside it.
A physical book demands time, stillness, and imagination. It is tactile in a way that digital media cannot replicate. The weight of pages, the act of turning them, the intimacy of reading without interruption. These are not sentimental details. They shape how children learn to focus, process language, and imagine beyond what is placed in front of them.
BookBank South Africa’s response has been practical. Through initiatives like the Book Market, they bring authors and books directly into communities, including townships and smaller towns that are often excluded from mainstream literary spaces. These pop-up markets are designed not as commercial initiatives, but as access points.
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Access is not a luxury
Aisha Laher approached the issue from a different angle. In a digital world where handing a child a device is easier than handing them a book, she questioned what is being sacrificed in the process.
Children scroll before they read. They consume before they imagine. And while technology has its place, Laher argued that the absence of books limits cognitive and emotional development in ways that are not immediately visible.
Affordability, she stressed, remains one of the biggest barriers. If books are priced out of reach, reading becomes an elite habit rather than a shared culture. Any serious conversation about literacy must therefore include access, pricing, and distribution, not just encouragement.
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The reality of self-publishing in South Africa
The publishing ecosystem has become a sort of spiderweb. In South Africa, most authors self-publish. This means financing their own printing, managing distribution, and carrying the financial risk themselves. It is an expensive entry point, often discouraging talented writers before their work even reaches readers.
BookBank South Africa positions itself as a support structure rather than a traditional publisher.
Representing around 50 authors, it focuses on promotion, exposure, and creating pathways for South African books to reach both local and international audiences.
Plans to showcase South African literature at global book fairs and place books in international stores reflect an ambition that has to make a difference.
Libraries, literacy, and what we choose to fund
The conversation returned repeatedly to libraries. Or rather, to their absence.
Ritson pointed to recent library closures and the lack of investment in public reading spaces, especially in underserved areas. Literacy cannot be outsourced to goodwill alone. It requires infrastructure, funding, and political will.
Communities, he argued, must pressure local councils and government departments to prioritise literacy not as charity, but as necessity.
Reading clubs, container libraries, and initiatives like the Bambanani project are attempts to fill gaps that should not exist in the first place.
They are interventions, not replacements.
Why local stories matter
For Laher, Bamba Butterfly represents more than a debut novel. It is an assertion that local stories matter. While global literature carries universal themes, children also need narratives rooted in familiar contexts, values, and social realities.
Local stories allow children to see themselves reflected in literature. They validate identity and contribute to nation-building in quiet but enduring ways. Without them, reading becomes distant, foreign, and easier to abandon.
A fragile ecosystem
High illiteracy rates, limited reading culture, digital distractions, and a lack of understanding about the publishing process form a fragile ecosystem that discourages both readers and writers.
Authors hesitate to invest. Readers struggle to access. Libraries disappear. And slowly, reading loses its place in daily life.
What initiatives like BookBank South Africa and the Book Market demonstrate is that literacy does not revive through grand declarations. It survives through proximity. Through books placed within reach. Through authors made visible. Through communities reminded that reading is not a luxury, but a foundation.
In a country still grappling with inequality, the concern isn’t whether we can afford to invest in books. It is whether we can afford not to.
To hear more of this conversation, watch the interview below:
Image credit: Gregory Culmer/Unsplash.
