PEN South Africa’s Open Letter to President Ramaphosa to allow the selling of books during Lockdown Stage 4 was signed by more than 3 000 people within 36 hours. Many prominent authors added their signatures to the appeal, including Nobel winner J.M. Coetzee, current Poet Laureate Wally Serote and other internationally renowned names such as Breyten Breytenbach, Damon Galgut, Zakes Mda and Deon Meyer.

The letter expressed concern about the survival of the South African book trade, which was already under strain prior to the Covid-19 outbreak: “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.”

While takeaway food may be delivered in Stage 4, government have limited book sales to that of “educational books”, leaving most bookshops, publishers and authors out of the loop. PEN SA holds that reading is one of the few activities which can be practiced at a social distance, and that “all books are educational”.

PEN SA submitted a petition to government on Freedom Day, 27 April, regarding the ‘buying, selling and reading of books’ as an essential service. The petition did not ask for bookshops to be physically open, but for books to be sold online or telephonically and delivered to homes.

A bruised and battered book trade watches this space with bated breath.