The Sunday News
Sibongile Ndiweni, Sunday News Reporter
LIZOM Ncube, a 24-year-old man from Nkayi has embarked on a programme to uplift the literacy levels in his community where he will engage students from various schools in the district to write poems and short stories for the creation of an anthology.
Ncube aims to publish the anthology using his publishing house- Ukhozi Publishers- which is based in Nkayi.
In an interview with Sunday News, Ncube said he set his business in Nkayi with an aim to raise the literacy levels of his community. He said the publishing house has already been working with the community through various donations to the needy.
“I have Nkayi at heart as I was born and bred here and I always want to put it on the picture that it’s very possible for good to come out of Nkayi not the bad image portrayed about Nkayi that so many believe. I believe setting the publishing house here in Nkayi comes as my way of giving back to the community and writers may benefit from our services at an affordable price. I also noticed that our communities are left behind and they do not have opportunities to know about these things, hence the need to pull such services closer to them so that the next generation does not experience the same challenges I faced,” said Ncube.
He said the publishing house has brought a lot of opportunities to budding writers in Nkayi as they can get their work published and pay later on agreed with some ending up getting sponsorship to publish their works.
Despite his young age and being a final year student at Lupane State University doing his Honours Degree in Geography and Population Studies, Ncube has vowed to continue availing more opportunities for his community.
“Ukhozi Publishers had an objective of publishing at least 25 individually written books by December 2022 since its formation in 2020, and we have achieved that. Going forward, there is a programme of talent search which aims to identify the different talents in young school learners so that we can look for sponsors and well-wishers to assist in terms of maturing such talents.
Other programmes include collaborations on writing books. I’m set to introduce a programme where students from different schools in Nkayi will be asked to write poems and stories for competition and the best poems and stories will be collaborated to form one book of poems and short stories written by Nkayi learners.
In the next few years my aim is to have a foundation or trust to assist those in need of educational assistance and we shall also introduce a campaign aimed at ensuring that every student is given an opportunity to register for their final examinations,” he added.
