Tons of school textbooks are being ripped up for recycling in East London with many of them destined to become toilet paper.
On Monday, Daily Dispatch published a story about hundreds of unused maths, life sciences, geography and Xhosa books being ripped up page by page in Stephenson Street by three men in the city centre. Xhosa and English readers, brand new chalk and other teaching materials were also found in a damp pile among the destroyed books.
Responding to the story, Publishers Association of South Africa (Pasa) Eastern Cape representative Warren Kliphuis said Pasa was “appalled” by the destruction, and some of the books were “definitely current CAPS” books. “In my opinion this is a crime,” he added.
Pasa – which represents education publishers like Oxford University Press, Penguin, Maskew Miller Longman, Shuter & Shooter and Via Afrika – sent provincial coordinator Wynand Schoeman to pick through the pile.
“I saw current CAPS stuff. We are investigating,” he said.
Yesterday the Daily Dispatch followed the trail.
Business stationery found alongside the trashed books led to businessman Mlandeli Vazi, who owns Khulani Bookshop in North Street in the CBD, one street away from where the books were being ripped up.
Vazi said the books were surplus stock in a storeroom in his building which had been cleared out by his new tenant, NCM Computer and Business Academy, owned by Maurice Owusu.
“They are books from various publishers but they are obsolete,” said Vazi, who also distributes orders on behalf of publishers to various Eastern Cape schools.
“These books are not from last year or this year, hence they were being stocked, but when a poor school asked me for books I would tell them they could choose from the storeroom for free. I am really sorry the books were ripped up. I used to be a teacher and would never throw books away. A book is never useless.”
Owusu said he decided to clear the storeroom from the premises he rented from Vazi because he needed the space.
“Mr Vazi told me he doesn’t need the books and that I could give them to my students. I told my staff to sort out the old books from the new and they kept the new CAPS ones, but some have been phased out of the system. They look new but they are old.”
Owusu said he had then phoned a “man with a bakkie” called Velelo to remove the books.
“I got his number from a friend and he said he had a place to give the books. I am disappointed he destroyed them. To dump them in the next street is madness. That was not the agreement.”
The Dispatch could not reach “Velelo” yesterday.
While investigating the destruction of hundreds of books in the city centre, the Dispatch was tipped off about a massive stash of Grade 11 and 12 exam preparation books being ripped up by a recycler in North End.
Cosmic Gold paper products owner Kobus Nel was overseeing the shredding of several tons of the books yesterday. Dated 2014 and stamped with the Eastern Cape Department of Education logo, they were destined to be recycled into toilet paper.
Vrij Harry, whose business Harry’s Printers printed them, said they were waste – “reject and extra” copies – which he sold to recyclers for R50 a ton.
“They are bad copies. Some were badly printed, others had technical mistakes made by authors. We put them in quarantine and destroy them once a year.” The education department had not responded by deadline.
Textbooks down the toilet: publishers body rails at ‘waste’
On Monday, Daily Dispatch published a story about hundreds of unused maths, life sciences, geography and Xhosa books being ripped up page by page in Stephenson Street by three men in the city centre. Xhosa and English readers, brand new chalk and other teaching materials were also found in a damp pile among the destroyed books.
Responding to the story, Publishers Association of South Africa (Pasa) Eastern Cape representative Warren Kliphuis said Pasa was “appalled” by the destruction, and some of the books were “definitely current CAPS” books. “In my opinion this is a crime,” he added.
Pasa – which represents education publishers like Oxford University Press, Penguin, Maskew Miller Longman, Shuter & Shooter and Via Afrika – sent provincial coordinator Wynand Schoeman to pick through the pile.
“I saw current CAPS stuff. We are investigating,” he said.
Yesterday the Daily Dispatch followed the trail.
Business stationery found alongside the trashed books led to businessman Mlandeli Vazi, who owns Khulani Bookshop in North Street in the CBD, one street away from where the books were being ripped up.
Vazi said the books were surplus stock in a storeroom in his building which had been cleared out by his new tenant, NCM Computer and Business Academy, owned by Maurice Owusu.
“They are books from various publishers but they are obsolete,” said Vazi, who also distributes orders on behalf of publishers to various Eastern Cape schools.
“These books are not from last year or this year, hence they were being stocked, but when a poor school asked me for books I would tell them they could choose from the storeroom for free. I am really sorry the books were ripped up. I used to be a teacher and would never throw books away. A book is never useless.”
Owusu said he decided to clear the storeroom from the premises he rented from Vazi because he needed the space.
“Mr Vazi told me he doesn’t need the books and that I could give them to my students. I told my staff to sort out the old books from the new and they kept the new CAPS ones, but some have been phased out of the system. They look new but they are old.”
Owusu said he had then phoned a “man with a bakkie” called Velelo to remove the books.
“I got his number from a friend and he said he had a place to give the books. I am disappointed he destroyed them. To dump them in the next street is madness. That was not the agreement.”
The Dispatch could not reach “Velelo” yesterday.
While investigating the destruction of hundreds of books in the city centre, the Dispatch was tipped off about a massive stash of Grade 11 and 12 exam preparation books being ripped up by a recycler in North End.
Cosmic Gold paper products owner Kobus Nel was overseeing the shredding of several tons of the books yesterday. Dated 2014 and stamped with the Eastern Cape Department of Education logo, they were destined to be recycled into toilet paper.
Vrij Harry, whose business Harry’s Printers printed them, said they were waste – “reject and extra” copies – which he sold to recyclers for R50 a ton.
“They are bad copies. Some were badly printed, others had technical mistakes made by authors. We put them in quarantine and destroy them once a year.” The education department had not responded by deadline.
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