On Sunday 22nd May 2022, Standard Bank Sponsorships in partnership with the Sunday times and Blessing Ngobeni created a once-off opportunity for one reader to find an Ngobeni original artwork inside of their newspaper – placed at random during this week’s print run.
The lucky reader, Mashudu Ralephata, from the Greater Gauteng Area, was out on this – as far as they knew – normal Sunday morning when she picked up the lucky copy of the paper, unknowingly containing the original artwork.
On Saturday evening, 21 May 2022, the printing press of the Sunday Times’ 22 May edition was stopped to allow Ngobeni to insert his original artwork into a newspaper on the printing press. The print run then continued as per the usual Sunday Times distribution schedule.
The placement of the original artwork extends Standard Bank’s ongoing support of the local arts scene and community which has been running for the past four decades. By putting a valuable piece of art into the hands of an everyday South African, the Standard Bank hopes to encourage more South Africans to take an interest in the cultural and commercial value of our arts industry, while creating an inspiring moment where dreams were made possible as part of this support.
“I just feel blessed. Because I didn’t even know how many copies were printed – and when I read it was more than 170,000, I knew this is grace that you get once in a lifetime. It only sunk in when we were driving to church in Pretoria after. I was so hesitant to go there in the morning, but my husband insisted we go to that shop because the parking is easier.
So that’s why I feel blessed, because most of the time when I buy a newspaper, I don’t take the top one, I take the middle one, but because it was for me, I just took the top one. I really feel so blessed – this is the grace I prayed for at church,” says Mashudu Ralephata of her find.
