The view from Table Mountain
Exactly how do a group of 6 UK creative entrepreneurs, recently landed in Cape Town, get an overview of life in South Africa? For a fresh perspective, we headed straight to Table Mountain, the city’s most famous landmark. Once at the summit, some 1,000 metres above the city, we were able to see the city from all angles: to look towards Cape Point where the Atlantic and Indian oceans converge, to see historic Robben Island and the new World Cup stadium with all its sparkling promise of the future of South Africa.
On our first full day in Cape Town we met with Annelize van der Merwe, a trade and investment advisor at the British Consultate specialising in Creative Industries. Annelize complemented our sweeping view of the city with some facts and figures. She tells us that although South Africa represents just 3% of Africa’s landmass, it contributes 40% of the continent’s industrial output and 25% of its GDP. It is, she says, the most sophisticated free market economy on the continent.
The UK is South Africa’s third largest trading partner and is an ideal market for many UK companies, having similar legal and financial systems. Over 1 million people are employed in the creative industries here, which contributes 1.75% of GDP. The publishing sector is “Euro-centric with a predisposition to look to the UK”, says Annelize, with 75% of the £260m book market being sales of titles in English.
All countries set their own definitions to measure literacy, making comparisons difficult, but South Africans have begun to use the phrase ‘active literacy’ to reflect the fact that adults need to maintain their reading after leaving school for at least four years to avoid becoming illiterate. Annelize estimates that 75% to 80% of the country is actively literate. Despite this, she says, “less than 12% of South Africans buy more than 3 books per year.”
Excitingly though, for a group of publishing entrepreneurs considering the opportunities and challenges that digital publishing will bring to their work in 2010, Annelize tells us that South Africa is the fourth largest user of mobile phones in the world, with 101% market penetration. Facebook is a huge cultural phenomena here; Twitter less so. There are 4.5m Facebook accounts in the country and 3.7m of these are accessed via mobile phones.
“Poorer communities don’t have fixed phone lines or a broadband connection, so they access the internet through their mobile phones. Young people are highly engaged with the site Mxit which is a very cheap social networking tool that enables users to send SMS messages for 1 cent.”
With a population of 48 million people and an emerging economy, South Africa is clearly punching above its weight in some areas. One huge challenge for developing new readers in the country is the cost of books: with paperbacks typically costing between 130 and 150 SA rand (a CD costs 100R; a film 40R; a pint of beer 15R) there are clear barriers to accessing literature for some communities.
