African Flavour Books.

Contact: Fortiscue Helepi FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Cell: +27 (0) 78 756 7659
04 AUGUST 2020
E-mail: [email protected]
www.africanflavourbooks.com

PRESS RELEASE

UPDATE ON AFRICAN FLAVOUR BOOKS RESPONSE TO ALLEGATIONS FROM CHECKPOINT

The African Flavour Books will like to update the stakeholders about the progress since the last media statement which was released on 15 July 2020. The aim of this press release is to set the record straight on the allegations made on Etv and ENCA programme called Checkpoint which was screened on 07 July 2020. This press release is from Vanderbijlpark and Fortiscue Helepi is responsible for this release.

We received a call from Checkpoint Producer, Sebe Buthelezi on 17 July 2020 and where an appointment was set up to shoot our response to allegations on 20 July 2020. The crew of Checkpoint arrived on 20 July 2020 at 10 am to record a response from African Flavour Books - Vanderbijlpark. The interview with Checkpoint lasted three hours and there were questions which were not featured on the previous program which we also had to answer.

Before we deal with the questions, we will like to apologies to all the authors and publishers for our lack of communication during the closure of African Flavour Books Braamfontein store on 31 January 2019.

We request the authors to please respond to our messages or contact us on 078 756 7659. This request comes after sending out messages to authors that have not sold any copies and posting our previous press release on our social media requesting authors to come and fetch their books. We have been approached only by five authors who came to collect their books and we made payment arrangement with them.

We request the authors to engage us directly so as to finalize the cancellation of consignment agreement. If you do not cancel your consignment contract by fetching your books and sending us the invoice then you will make it difficult for us to plan on how and when to pay you. If you want to be part of the solution then come and pick up your books or send anyone with your authority so that we can give them your books.

It will be sad that we pass this phase and our company labeled as scammers while the same people do not avail themselves to pick up their books and send us the invoices.
We offered Checkpoint to show them the contracts and other information we had regarding not finding us on the day of the first episode. We will like to deal with some of the questions raised by Checkpoint during the 3 hour interview we had with them:

1. Why did we arrive at a book festival four hours late in December 2016?

The reason we arrived late was because some of the books were delivered late by the publishers. We explained this situation to the festival director and we apologized, and we thought he understood.

2. Why in 2017 we did not provide the organizer of the festival book sales statistics?

We explained that we could not reconcile all the information because on one day of the event we had a long line and it was irritating to the customers to wait at a line while festival activities were continuing. We were using one till which slowed down everything. We decided to start a new till point for cards but could not record the titles sold and this helped with easing the queue. This issue was discussed numerous times to the festival director and we explained that we could not estimate the number of books from the income made. These figures were important since they were going to be compared with the 2016 figures and determine the growth of book sales at the book festival.

3. Why did African Flavour Books not inform the authors about the possibility of closing when we fell behind on rental as we have known that we are in breach of our lease?

There was never a discussion to close our business or be evicted by our landlord. We were actually looking for a smaller space to move into in Braamfontein. This happened until we were locked out. For three months we were in discussion with our landlord to release the authors stock. Due to Landlord’s Tacit Hypothec clause we did not have any access to author’s stock for three months.

When the settlement was reached with the landlord attorneys we were given 72 hours to vacate the premise which was not enough to call all 300 authors to come and pick up their books.

4. We owe R400000 but we are banking on R80000 that we are owed by Algerian government, what differences will this make?

That will make a big difference in paying close to 70% of the authors and will enable us to close lot of consignment accounts. This might seem small to anyone but to us it will be a life line. But we need to remember this is the business money and it is important to get it and pay the authors.

5. What was the role of Ayanda Lawrence-Dlomo to the company?

The role of Ayanda Lawrence-Dlomo was a part-time employee who was paid the same amount as the part-time students. Ayanda Lawrence-Dlomo was unskilled and inexperienced young person. She never submitted a CV and was never interviewed because her parent asked us to hire her. The hiring of Ayanda was made due to a personal favour we did for her mother and we do not regret that. We disclosed the amount we were going to pay her upfront and we never promised her a full-time position.

6. The authors say they cannot take African Flavour Books to court because they do not have contracts. Did African Flavour Books not give authors the contracts?

The company has a consignment agreement where we agreed about the selling price and buying price and terms and conditions with each author. We facilitated the agreement discussion with each author and everyone was given a copy of the agreement. We have copies of these contracts and authors were given their copies.

7. Why we do not refund Vusumusi Mkhabela his R600 and why you threatened him?

We never threatened Vusumusi Mkhabela with violence but it is upsetting when a young person like him tells pure lies on social media and television about African Flavour Books and our shareholder Fortiscue Helepi. We have allowed lots of young people who wanted to hire the venue for their events and one thing all of them respect is that we are running a business. This is something Vusumusi did not respect.

He came to cancel a day before the actual event, while he knew there will be no event weeks before. We told him to provide us with actual proof on how many tickets he has sold but he could not provide that proof. We booked the sound and the projector which he requested and we had to pay a deposit for them. We cannot recoup the deposit we paid for the resources he requested. We will not be refunding him his deposit because he owes us money. The document states that you can get a refund when you cancel two weeks before the date.

8. Why we have not paid Vangile Gantsho from 2016?

We have sent Vangile Gantsho the statements and she has never sent us the invoices for the books. We will like her to send us invoices so that we can settle the matter.

9. Why do we continue selling their books in Vanderbijlpark after closing Braamfontein?

The consignment agreement the authors signed give us permission to sell the books at all the stores and including book festivals. There was never any illegal dealing when selling their books at Vanderbijlpark while the consignment agreement is not cancelled.

About African Flavour Books

African Flavour Books is a division of African Flavour Media (Pty) Ltd which specialises in selling African literature. The owners are arts and culture entrepreneurs and have been promoting African literature for the last five years through their stores African Flavour Books. We have a bookstore and gallery in Vanderbijlpark.

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For further information on this topic please contact Fortiscue Helepi by phone on +27 (0) 78 756 7659 or on e-mail at [email protected]

End

www.africanflavourbooks.com

Contact: Fortiscue Helepi FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Cell: +27 (0) 78 756 7659
15 JULY 2020
E-mail: [email protected]
www.africanflavourbooks.com

PRESS RELEASE

AFRICAN FLAVOUR BOOKS RESPONDS TO ALLEGATIONS FROM CHECKPOINT

The aim of this press release is to set the record straight on the allegations made on Etv and ENCA programme called Checkpoint which was screened on 07 July 2020. This press release is from Vanderbijlpark and Fortiscue Helepi is responsible for this release.

This release is for customers, suppliers and authors in the South African book industry. The release is setting the record straight for all stakeholders regarding the allegations made against African Flavour Books and its shareholders and directors Nokuthula and Fortiscue Helepi.

Before we deal with these allegation points, we will like to apologies to around 300 authors and all publishers that have trusted us with their products to sell. We will like to state that it was never our intention to cause any harm to anyone and the industry at large. Our initial intention was to promote reading and give a platform for our local authors to sell and promote their products. That vision it is still achievable even though the company is going through some challenges.

We would like to put it on record that African Flavour Books shareholders have invested R 4 million in the book industry in the last five years. This investment helped the company to open two stores which is Braamfontein and Vanderbijlpark. The company was also due to open a bookstore in Soweto in 2018 which never happen due to cash flow problems.

We will like to put it into perspective that the total money owed by the company to the book industry is R400000. This is the money owed to the publishers (R170000) and self-published authors (R230000).

The transactions that African Flavour Books recorded in the last five years for self-published authors are worth R400000. This is for 339 transactions for 300 authors. Out of R400000 we have paid invoices worth R170000 (42%) to the self- published authors and we have outstanding payments of R230000 (58%). Out of 339 transactions recorded we have 64 titles that have not sold anything. We have paid for 84 titles so far and that leaves us with 191 titles that are outstanding.

The allegations made on the Checkpoint are as follows:

1. The directors and shareholders as scammers.
2. Treatment of former employees.
3. The late-payment of authors on time.
4. The late-return of author’s books.
5. The late-communication with authors.

1. The directors and shareholders as scammers.

We refute the claims that our directors Nokuthula and Fortiscue Helepi are scammers as stated on the programme. Our directors have been available and approachable to all authors who wanted to resolve the late payment issues with the company in our Vanderbijlpark store. All our directors have done is to continue selling the books based on the contracts signed with the authors.

After closing the store in Braamfontein, the Vanderbijlpark store has always been opened. Other authors have been able to reach out to us and resolve the late-payment of the invoices. Our directors have done everything in their power to make the business grow and secure the property of the authors. They have done everything with good faith and never wanted to destroy people’s businesses or careers.

We have been operating in this industry for more than 5 years and have sold books to people in night clubs, flea markets, university events, book festivals, and other events. We have been loyal supporters of African literature for years until we hit a wall when we closed Braamfotein store due to financial difficulties.

2. The treatment of former employees.

African Flavour Books has always put the development of unemployed and unskilled youth at the forefront so as to develop them and give them necessary skills. We have employed more than ten unemployed and unskilled youth in the last five years. Some of the youth were students and we employed them on part-time basis. We have seen how having a job has changed the future of these young people.

Only permanent skilled employees got contracts with the organization after showing skills required by the company and three months probation. We believe in the youth of this country and it was in good intentions to give young people opportunities of part-time work. Most of the students appreciated our efforts of ensuring that we paid them on time even though the business was not doing well. We prioritized the well being of our employees at all our stores and we have treated all our employees with openness and fairness.

3. The late-payment of authors.

African Flavour Books started in 2015 and it has supported the local authors more than any bookshop in this country. We have built good relationships with most of the authors and publishers making sure that we take their books to different book festivals and events. The relationships broke down with some of the authors due to financial difficulties that the company faced.

There are two things that contributed to late payments of authors:

• Consignment books tracking system: When we started we had 30 local authors who gave us their books on consignment and this was easy to track. At our Braamfontein store that number shot up to around 300 local authors. This created administration burden for us and we tried to resolve it by hiring a full-time administrator to deal with outstanding statements and invoices but it was too late. The complication was due to selling books in two stores and tracking them. This meant that statements arrived late and authors’ invoices took time to process.

• Failed sales and marketing initiatives:

 South African Book Fair: We lost R60000 when we participated in South African Book Fair in September 2017. We still owe about R40000 to one of the big publishers for the stock we requested for the event.

 Algerian trip with National Library of South Africa (NLSA): The NLSA cost us R80000 when they invited us for a trip to Algeria in November 2017. The National Library of South Africa (NLSA) under Department of Sports, Arts and Culture requested us to accompany them and open a store to sell African literature in Algeria. We sold books and we never received any money from Algeria. We have requested help from Department of Sports, Arts and Culture and Department of International Relations and Cooperation. This is the amount that is owed to us by Algerian government and we have been struggling to get it for three years. The embassy of South Africa in Algeria has not done enough for Algerian government to release our money.

 Book Festivals: We were requested to sell books at a book festival in December 2017. We requested the industry to give us books on sale or return basis but some of the books were stolen and that set us back by R100000. This is the money we still owe to big publishers in this country. These are companies that have supported us unconditionally and we will always appreciate that.

The marketing and sales initiatives in the last three months of 2017 caused the company R240000 of debt which we have never been able to recover from. No small business which is selling one of the difficult products like books can survive that cash flow loss.

We will like to pay everyone we owe and that is the motivation for us each day. It is through the hope that we will get our money from Algeria that we promise to honour and pay each invoices owed. We will like to request the authors to collect their books and send us invoices so that we can plan properly for their payments. There are 64 books which did not sell a copy and there are also number of books which sold either one or two copies. We need the authors to come and collect the remaining copies so that they can send us the invoices.

4. The late-return of author’s books.

There is no truth in that we do not want to return the books of the authors. Our system requires you to sign-off for the copies when we cancel the consignment contract. The author’s books are arranged properly at the shop and they can be collected at any time. We have never refused to return the books of any author. The authors gave us the permission to sell their books at Braamfontein and Vanderbijlpark. This is stipulated in the contracts that the authors signed. We explained each clause of the contract to every author. Consignment material means that the product belongs to the publisher or author and never the bookseller. It is not true that we refuse to return authors books.

We call on the authors to come and cancel their consignment agreements and collect their books. We have currently suspended all the sales of books on consignment. We would like to thank authors that have collected their books and submitted the invoice for payment.

5. The late-communication with authors.

We have communicated with the authors and told them about our predicament of cash flow which happens to any business. Some who wanted to resolve the matter have approached us at our store in Vanderbijlpark and resolved the late payments of invoices. We are always open and we are not hiding from anyone. We accept that we have not communicated enough as we thought it will be good to communicate after we got paid by Algerian government.

About African Flavour Books

African Flavour Books is a division of African Flavour Media (Pty) Ltd which specialises in selling African literature. The owners are arts and culture entrepreneurs and have been promoting African literature for the last five years through their stores African Flavour Books. We have a bookstore and gallery in Vanderbijlpark.

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For further information on this topic please contact Fortiscue Helepi by phone on +27 (0) 78 756 7659 or on e-mail at [email protected]

End

www.africanflavourbooks.com

Public Announcement

Dear Customers,

Please note that we are still not fully operational in Braamfontein due to ongoing strikes. There is a possibility of you finding us closed until the strikes are resolved. The last week and beginning of this week was Southpoint employees and this morning it seems to be students. Please send you request to us by email to [email protected] or Whatsapp or SMS to 0794794946.

Sorry for the inconvenience.

Regards,
African Flavour Books

Dear AFB Vaal Customer,

We will be moving to new premises in Vanderbijlpark. We are excited about the way we want to position this flagship store. The store will be closed from 23 July 2018. We will open the new store on 01 September 2018. We hope that you will like the new store and the flexibility it will have in supporting arts and culture. We apologize for the inconvenience and the quick move due to long negotiations. Thank you for your support.