UCT: At least 70 000 items damaged in devastating fire
The University of Cape Town (UCT) says it's confident it will rebuild after parts of the campus were engulfed by fire at the weekend.
The fire ignited on Sunday, ripping through a section of the Rhodes Memorial Restaurant, and quickly spread to adjacent areas.
Historical artefacts and documents were lost when flames also engulfed the university's Jagger library.
At least 70 000 items from the African Studies Published Print Collection, the entire African Studies Film Collection on DVD, all the university calendars, government publications and manuscripts were among the damaged items.
UCT spokesperson Elijah Moholola says residual damage caused by flooding and seepage is also expected, but the extent of the damage may not be known for a while.
"While a mapping exercise has identified materials, a full assessment of this destruction can only happen once the building is declared safe, and staff are permitted on site. A list will eventually be made available once donors and owners of collections entrusted to UCT Libraries are informed."
Despite the damage, Moholola remains optimistic the university will recover from the loss.
"This was a sad day for UCT and UCT libraries. This loss will be felt deeply across our community as the libraries are so critical to all of us. We cannot replace the treasures of scholarship we have lost, but we can create new treasures out of our own scholarship.
"In the same way, each of us can rebuild our own sense of purpose out of this tragedy. Our colleagues in the libraries have a long road ahead of them and many of us feel the devastation of the loss of this significant institutional asset but we will walk this road to rebuild our facilities together."
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