British Council announces South African finalist in 2007 International Young Publisher of the Year Award

The International Young Publisher of the Year Award (IYPYA) is a collaborative initiative between the British Council and London Book Fair and was launched in 2004 to celebrate the entrepreneurial and leadership ability of a young persons working in the publishing sector, who are between the ages of 25-35 years.

This award aims to strengthen creative leadership, networking and capacity building in the international publishing industry, particularly in transitional economies. The London Book Fair provides a fertile ground for international networking and the award offers finalists the opportunity to build contacts with, and an understanding of, the UK publishing industry.

The British Council South Africa has announced 34 year old Cape Town based publishing entrepreneur, Solomon Solani Ngobeni, as the country’s 2007 finalist in this award.


Solomon Solani Ngobeni (South Africa)

Solomon Solani Ngobeni holds a Masters degree in Publishing Studies, obtained at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, as well as an Advanced Management Programme Certificate obtained at the Wits Business School. After graduating, he joined the Institute for Global Dialogue, a research institute based in Midrand, Johannesburg as a Publications and Projects Co-ordinator. He later joined Juta & Co as Higher Education Publisher, specialising in psychology, political science and education, building a formidable psychology list under the University of Cape Town’s Press Imprint.

In 2004 Solani was appointed Managing Director of Juta Learning, a division of Juta & Co. He was responsible for Further Education and Training related publishing until his resignation in January 2007. Upon resignation, Solani founded S & S Publishing, an academic publishing house specialising in social sciences as well as Further Education and Training. Further information about S & S Publishing is available at www.sspublishing.co.za

Solani has written and published on issues such as publishing management, the lack of bn publishing, as well as the impact of the dominance of knowledge produced in developed countries and its impact on viable publishing in the South. He has also written profusely around issues about the dearth of knowledge production by black academies in South Africa, the fact that 80% of South African knowledge is produced predominantly by white males and the slow pace of transformation in the South African publishing industry.

This young author and publisher strongly believes that the South African publishing industry will only grow and prosper once black South Africans have been brought into the mainstream of the knowledge economy, as both producers and consumers of knowledge. The future survival of the industry depends on it!