Game, the Massmart-owned discount retailer, has started selling children’s books in local African languages, including Sepedi and Zulu, as it seeks to stock more relevant products.
Game, which lost more than R530m in 2020, is implementing a turnaround plan and has been upgrading its product selection to be more relevant to customers. This is after executives admitted in 2020 that popular items were often out of stock and its selection of goods did not resonate with customers.
Massmart CEO Mitchell Slape, who has been working for Walmart for more than 20 years, is guiding the Massmart-owned company to profitability.
Game vice-president of marketing Katherine Madley said that the company is a back-to-school destination in which parents shop for stationery. The retailer has thus added educational books and is now introducing books in more SA languages.
Despite SA having 11 official languages, most children’s books are published in English.
“We have Game stores nationally, some situated in townships , and by having access to books in vernacular languages, children can start getting exposed to the world of reading and learning,” Madley said.
“We realise the significance of children reading in their vernacular language and how that has a positive impact on learning and comprehension for a child’s development,” she said.
The shortage of books in children’s home languages is so severe that a group of parents got together a few years ago to start the online book store Ethnikids.
Co-founder of the bookstore Khumo Tapfumaneyi said it was started “out of the frustration of not being able to find books in our home languages in mainstream bookstores. We have been in operation for five years now, with great growth figures.”
Tapfumaneyi said there is too little commercial support for writers to produce children’s books in African languages.
“There are more than enough creatives to write, translate and edit the stories. The lack of commercial support has been a deterrent to supply. According to the Publishers’ Association of SA, in 2016 only 2% of children’s books produced by trade publishers were in local African languages, while 61% were in Afrikaans and 37% in English,” she said.
Game’s move might put it in direct competition with privately owned CNA, whose turnaround strategy also includes improving its book range in SA languages.
Pan Macmillan’s children’s book publisher Miemie du Plessis said children have a better chance of learning to read well in their home language.
“From a publisher’s perspective it is non-negotiable to publish children’s books in as many SA languages as possible. It is essential for learning language and developing literacy,” Du Plessis said.
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