Govt slams book piracy

The 2012 Zimbabwe International Book Fair, running under the theme “African Literature in the Global and Digital Era”, kicked off on Monday with a two-day indaba being held at the Crowne Plaza Monomotapa Hotel.
According to the organisers, the Fair has found it worthy to move along with time as their theme looks into the prevailing mood of digitisation in education, literary, publishing, bookselling and library to complement the e-learning programmes that are already underway.
This year’s edition sees a number of activities lined up including the ZIBF Indaba, Young Persons Indaba,  Children’s Reading Tent and re-introduced Traders’ Day were local, regional  and international publishers will trade knowledge and ideas.
The indaba was attended by artistes, writers, poets and filmmakers among other stake holders in the book industry.
Addressing delegates at the official opening of the 2012 ZIBF Indaba, Deputy Minister of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture Honourable Lazarus Dokora said they are aware of people who are engaging in piracy and the law is going to catch up with them.
“There is a lot of book pirating in the country and this has affected our book industry and we’re going to do something to prevent it from collapsing,” said Dokora.
ZIBF chairperson Musaemura Zimunya also condemned book piracy.
“Our writers and publishers are facing major challenges from book pirating which has become our biggest challenge affecting both the writers and readers,” said Zimunya.
However, Zimunya cited parents, some school officials as the main culprits.
“It begins with us as main culprits of book pirating and we are suppressing the publisher as few people are buying books since a lot of photocopying is done.
“How then do we promote our local publishers?” he added.
Zimunya said there were plans to hold the Mutare Book Fair next month.“We have scheduled the Mutare Book Fair event for the month of September and it will run under the same theme as our main Book Fair, just as the Bulawayo Book Fair before it,” said Zimunya.
The ZIBF has been the largest and most important book fair in Sub-Saharan Africa, held annually during the first week of August.
The support of donors has been a crucial factor in the fair’s success.
Norwegian Embassy in partnership with Hivos and the Culture Fund in partnership with SIDA and the British Council are some of the main sponsors of this year’s edition.
Since its inception 1983, ZIBF has become Africa’s premier book and publishing trade fair, showcasing the largest and most diverse annual exhibition of books, magazines, journals, CDs as well as printing and publishing technologies on the continent.