IT IS FULL of boyfriends for writers who still wish to prosper following the announcement by the writers’ association, Siba Writer’s Guild, to nurture new skills in this field.
Siba, this week, launched a new board that will handle all the programs, and it is the one that expressed that they wish that there would be tangible results to work with budding artists.
Veteran writer Dr. Nakajanji Sibiya was appointed as the Chairman of Siba, while the Deputy Chairman was Mr. Muntomuhle Mcambi, the Treasurer was Dr. Themba Qwabe, and the Secretary was Ms. Nompumelelo Khumalo, who was supported by Ms. Ntombenhle Dlamini. Additional members were Mr. Zwelihle Mkhize and Mr. Mandla Ndlovu.
In an interview with Solezwe Ngeendeke, the Chairman of Siba, Dr. Sibiya, famous for the book titled Bengithi Lizokuna, revealed that it was not good in their spirit that this organization has been around for 40 years but it is still difficult for it to reach the people as they wish.
“When this organization started in 1985, the main aim was to participate in promoting and developing the careers of writers. As time went on, we continued to participate in it – we eventually realized that this was not being achieved properly because we were based in Durban for the most part. This was causing distance from many writers, out of reach for us,” said Sibiya.
According to the new process, Usiba will have branches in different regions including Ugu which will be led by Sibiya, Lembe which will be led by Mcambi, Durban which will be led by Ms. Khumalo, and Harry Gwala which will be led by Ms. Dlamini. In Mzinyathi, Qwabe will be the eye, in Pietermaritzburg it will be Ndlovu, King Cetshwayo will be led by Mkhize, while Thukela, Amajuba, Zululand and Khanyakude still have no representative.
Sibiya revealed that in all these regions they have planned to hold events to introduce themselves to the people throughout March so that it will be known that there are already such programs starting, and they can also start relationships with writers.
“We also want to help budding writers to use the name and contributions of the Ubisa organization to find different opportunities to develop their artistic works, because we know that it will not be the same to knock on certain departments on your own, even if you use the name of this well-known and reputable organization like ours,” he said.
He revealed that from now on they will continue to hold various events and programs in conjunction with writing competitions in different fields and themes of books.
“We wish to continue collaborating with other artists to use the art of writing books to import and in other ways, we are also counting on helping writers to use their works of books that can be turned into television shows,” he said.