Cafda Bookshops

Bookshop manager: Lennie Smith

Achievements during April 2007 – March 2008

Established 53 years ago, our secondhand bookshops have been a proud part of the history of Cape Town. With a combined sales target of over 1 Million Rand per year, they form the backbone of the fundraising projects of CAFDA, making a major contribution to the continuation of the many services rendered.

Our most important service is probably that of providing those members of the community who would otherwise not be able to afford it, with reading and study materials at a fraction of the original cost. In the process we have in recent times experienced a significant increase in the number of persons from previously disadvantaged backgrounds frequenting our shops. School and university books are in high demand and we have been fortunate to be able to provide many of these books and study guides to candidates writing matriculation and other exams. We also have an understanding with the Student Council of the Cape Peninsula University of Technology who refer their students to us.

We actively endeavour to make our facilities customer friendly and shopping with us a pleasant experience. Many of our clients have been visiting our shops for years, some even since our inception, and it is always pleasing to note the positive remarks coming from most of them. People from all walks of life buy from us and we try and make the extra effort to provide them with friendly, helpful assistance.

Our shops are almost exclusively staffed by volunteers some of whom have been with us for more than 20 years. We honour and salute them for their dedication and commitment and the wonderful contribution they have made to the success of our bookshops. Without their services we would never be able to generate the funds that we do and the continued existence of our shops would be under very serious threat. Unfortunately their numbers are dwindling fairly rapidly as a result of natural attrition and we are appealing to those still young at heart to join our team of volunteers for a really rewarding and joyful experience.

Our lifeblood is really the generous donations of books and other materials received from the Cape Town community who has opened their hearts to CAFDA since its very beginning. These have continued and even increased in recent times. We are often pleasantly surprised by the sheer quality of some of the donations enabling us to generate more funds especially when rare books are sold to collectors and other interested individuals. A recent example of such a donation was when books from the Smuts collection were donated by a family member. We salute the generosity of our donors and thank them for their continued support.

Another of our longest serving members, Mr. Jack Kent who celebrated his 97th birthday last year, passed away recently. He was an example to all of us and will be fondly remembered for the special way in which he enriched our lives. Our sincerest thanks are also extended to Mr. and Mrs. Henri and Celia Meiring who recently retired after many years of service. In the same breath it should also be mentioned that we were very fortunate to have acquired the services of a Danish volunteer, Ms Marainne Lunden, who worked with great commitment at the Claremont shop for a period of almost two months.

Our Claremont shop seems destined for relocation possibly before the end of this year because of construction in the area. Should that happen, we hope to find alternative accommodation accessible to our customers, preferably within the Claremont area.

While rising costs continue to deplete our income available for CAFDA projects, we will endeavour to increase our turnover to minimize the effects of inflation.

For further information call Lenny Smith 021 674 2230

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