The Post Office will be introducing 10 new celebrity stamps next year. Yip! The bastion of grey corridors, comatose staff and strike mayhem will be infusing a new vibe into the stamp.
Each stamp will feature a different South African musical icon who's had a dramatic impact on the country.
Who will the 10 be? The Post Office has opened the selection process to the public and wants us to have our say on who should be featured.
There are a couple of stipulations as to who can be chosen - most notably: none of the musos can still be alive. One of the "rules" in the stamp world is that the only living person who's allowed to be on a stamp is the president - any other person depicted has to be out of wordly action.
Also, musos should have achieved one or more of the following criteria:
- Developed a completely new, original style of music that is distinctively South African.
- Changed the way people think about the world (philosophical) as a result of listening to the music of these musicians.
- A change or deeper understanding of the full spectrum of South African society resulting from listening to the music of these musicians (political).
- Should be representative of South African society and the musical styles should cover the most important or best-known musical genres.
- Achieved International success.
You can make your suggestions heard on the
Post Office's Facebook page or by e-mailing them at
sa.stamps@postoffice.co.za.
Submissions close on Friday - 3 May.So who are your choices? My Top 3:
Miriam Makeba (of course!)
Lucky Dube
Lebo Mathosa
PS: There's a TV show in this for sure. I'm thinking a documentary special ... once the 10 have been chosen the special can cover how and why each of them were chosen and also, how their stamps were created. Who'll be drawing them? What was involved in the final image? What age are they on the stamp and why? etc