Dear Mr Bergman

I'm unsure whether you and your party are aware of the government-inflicted demise of the SA Book Development Council with effect from the end of July 2021, but I believe it is a matter that should be raised in Parliament and that the Minister responsible for the DSAC should be required to answer to. This week would have been National Book Week - the vision for which was to increase access to books and to promote reading and literacy amongst our most vulnerable citizens. This week would have seen the third SA Book Fair being held not in Johannesburg as planned but virtually. But the Department's lack of funding - and its not being forthcoming with the R2.5 million + required to fund the SABDC's annual literacy programme, the NBW and the SABF until as late as April 2021, leaving an army of suppliers and other contributors to the events without payment for their services - came too little, too late.

A National Treasure has become a National Tragedy/Scandal, especially since one of the reasons for the non-delivery of the budgeted funding was that the funds had simply "disappeared". The current Minister also has to answer for his cavalier and demeaning treatment of the SABDC, which performed pioneering work in this sphere. In fact, besides the Ghana Book Development Council, the SABDC was Africa's only other comparable body. With its minute staff complement of 4-5 staff, the SABDC contributed 99% of the book development literature in South Africa - no mean achievement.

Our president has also paid lip service when he championed reading as a vehicle for improved growth and leadership, but where was he when the survival of the SABDC was at stake?

I urge your party to raise this matter in Parliament so that it is not swept under the carpet and the SABDC is not allowed to pass into oblivion unrecognised for its pioneering championing of literacy, reading and books on a national scale. For one thing, it was on a mission to promote jobs in the creative sphere - primarily through its Indigenous Languages Publishing Project - and at the same time promote multilingualism, something that the effete, money-grubbing PanSALB has failed on a grand scale to do.

I write to you as a professional text editor and executive member of the Professional Editors' Guild. In both capacities, I have had the privilege of collaborating with the SABDC, and in particular with its tireless, passionate, innovative and enterprising CEO, Elitha van der Sandt.

What a tragedy to befall our land, especially the younger generations so starved of books and reading in their mother tongue when the funding required was small change compared to the billions this so-called "pro-poor" government has squandered or stolen.

If you require further information, I will happily provide you with the formal announcements that the SABDC has issued during the past fortnight.

Your sincerely
John Linnegar