‘The SA We Want to Live In’
A SERIES of intense dialogues, which started at the District Six Homecoming Centre in January last year, has culminated in the launch of a book called The South Africa We Want To Live In. The book, compiled and edited by former Cape Times editor Ryland Fisher, will be launched at the District Six Homecoming Centre on Monday, December 7.
The book has been published by Iksusasa Lethu Media (Our Future) with the support of Community Chest. The launch will be live-streamed on Community Chest’s YouTube channel and via Facebook Live.
“This whole process has been an awakening of sorts for me and others involved in this project,” said Fisher. “We had dialogues all over the Western Cape, in places such as Athlone, Stellenbosch, Paarl and George and listened to concerns of people from different walks of life. In the end, we found that many concerns are the same, whether it involved people from urban or rural areas.”
“The economy was the number one concern at all the dialogues and many people were worried about jobs and being able to afford to live.”
“Crime, as expected, came up as one of South Africa’s biggest problems – including corruption – and things such as the return of the land as well as impatience with government’s lack of service delivery featured very strongly. Racism, in all its manifestations, was also raised at all the dialogues.”
“The most important lesson from the dialogues was that despite the concerns, people strongly felt that they have something to contribute to South Africa. However, nobody appears to be listening to them.”
Community Chest chief executive, Lorenzo Davids, said the compilation of the dialogues in the book, supplemented with contributions by people from all over the country, should be used by government to help navigate the hopes and expectations of South Africans.
“Our aim has been to avoid stereotypical reflections and to focus on telling the stories of building a safe, just, equitable, inclusive and prosperous democracy. We want to help build this country into the amazing place we all know it can be.”
“The contributors in the book are a mix of young and old, black and white, men and women, public figures and the not-so-well-known, which helps to give us a greater grasp of perspectives among different sectors of the community.”
Contributors include former Anglican Archbishop Thabo Makgoba; former Constitutional Court judges Albie Sachs and Zak Yacoob; businessmen Bonang Mohale, Sipho Pityana, Mavuso Msimang and Dan Kriek; former finance minister Trevor Manuel; academics Mamokgethi Phakeng, Francis Petersen, Tawane Kupe, Jonathan Jansen and Njabulo Ndebele; students Carryn Brown, Sameera Mahomedy and Andrea Weideman; poets Sindiwe Magona and Athol Williams; musicians Chad Saaiman, Vicky Sampson, Victor Masondo and Sipho “Hotstix” Mabuse; and activists including Equal Education’s Noncedo Madubedube, the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation’s Stan Henkeman, District Six Museum’s former director, Bonita Bennett, Community Chest’s Davids and social cohesion advocate Yusuf Abramjee.
The book retails for R199, but there is a pre-release special of only R150 via the Community Chest website www. comchest. org. za For more information, contact Ryland Fisher at 082 800 5326 or rylandfisher@mweb.co.za. |