ANNUAL REPORTS
| NATAL SOCIETY FOUNDATION TRUST ANNUAL REPORT, 2025 |
This year the trust made further strides away from the world of print. This has arisen not out of conviction but necessity as hardcopy publication demands disproportionate resources, human and financial, given minimal interest in print. The last hardcopy Natalia was produced in 2022; in 2025 the trust published its second book solely in electronic format; and a start was made to modernisation of the website. The website conversion involved a decision to host it in South Africa; and to switch to the user-friendly WordPress package. The new site will reflect the fact that the trust no longer owns special collections. Its main purpose is that of making available, in terms of the Creative Commons, writing about the KwaZulu-Natal region. The best vehicle for this is Natalia which allows for a multiplicity of authors and contribution types varying from full-length articles to short notes, obituaries and book reviews. As it happens there is no monograph in prospect for the immediate future and full attention is being paid to nurturing Natalia back to sustained health. This is reflected in issues 54 and 55 of 2024 and 2025. After consultation with the KZN Archives, and in particular its oral history section, in January 2024 one article was forthcoming for the 2025 issue and there are encouraging indications of more to come. Although print-ready files can no longer be supplied to African Books Collective and demand for hardcopy is minimal there is continued demand for titles to be included in bundles and this provides modest income. Audits for the years 2023 to 2025 commenced together with updated SARS compliance. This year was the first within a new two-year budget cycle and the trust’s finances proved more than adequate, although administrative costs continued to dominate. The trustees now number eight of whom three are honorary. There has been no physical meeting of trustees since March 2020, a few days before the Covid19 lockdown, and business is conducted via four-monthly reports and email correspondence when necessary. Thanks are due to all the trustees for their various contributions; to the freelancers who enable publication of Natalia; and to Hay & Scott for its very efficient administrative oversight. Christopher Merrett February 2026 |