University of Cape Town (UCT) on fire.

originally posted by: halfoldman
Ah UCT, the memories.

The one day I took the train just to hand in books, and once on campus there were thousands of people having some political rally.

Next thing something went DOOF, DOOF!
It was just the two gardeners throwing their shovels in the van, never-mind the students protesting for their freedom.
But people thought it was gunshots (as I interpret it), and next thing everything goes wild.
Some people start throwing stones (in various directions, I might add), everyone's screaming, and the cops are starting to shoot tear gas.

Run to the library - run for your life.
Up the stairs and grab any book and pretend to read.
Now this was still the old apartheid police.
And they came up the stairs, and they looked at the books, and randomly threw them on the floor.
"This is nonsense, this is nonsense, this is rubbish".
My heart was racing ... what am I going to tell my parents?

But then they felt like a cigarette and left.

Yes. Nonsense to them because they refuse to be taught or expand their minds outside their tiny little world.

The latest from UCT Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Mamokgethi Phakeng:

a reply to: Beestie

Ixnay, Don't think Google translates maybe you should include englishyay

"Ai, hierdie eenvoudige happy clappies wat ooral hulle stront saai weet darem nie mooi wat in die wereld aangaan nie ne. Donerse idioot."

I said "ai, all these obvious religious freaks sowing their nonsense has no idea what's going on in the real world. Damn idiot."

Bringing a satanic ritual reference into this is pathetic. Educate yourself why it's called devils peak before bringing your fire and brimstone. It's a folk tale.

The reason I found your post very distasteful is that child kidnappings are a real problem here. Kids of the minority group in this country are being kidnapped. You probably don't know where they end up but I'm not going to explain as it's not something to discuss openly on here because of the brutality. Go google muti.

A few days into the aftermath, although UCT is is still skittish in saying exactly which collections were destroyed, or estimating the damage in money.

Here is the opinion of R.W. Johnson on the fire:

During my own time as a university administrator I concluded that one had two supreme duties. First, one had to work continuously to raise academic standards. At the very least these should never fall. Everything else had to be subordinate to that. Secondly, one had to preserve and improve the institution’s physical plant and intellectual capital. It has been apparent for some time that UCT has been quite deliberately failing on the first score. One heard continuously of extremely able academics who were told that on purely racial grounds they would not be considered for appointment – and at the same time one learned of appointments which were inexplicable in terms of academic merit. Many Cape Town parents, hearing such reports, sent their children to Stellenbosch. However, the recent fire which devastated the UCT campus suggests that the university authorities have also failed completely on the second score as well. The historic Jagger library has been gutted and at least some of its major collections lost. In addition the Archives next to the library have apparently also suffered gravely.

www.politicsweb.co.za...

For more on R.W. Johnson:en.wikipedia.org...
I regard him as a painstakingly informed commentator of SA affairs, especially what I'd call the How Long Will South Africa Survive? "trilogy" (1977, 2015, 2017).

What was in the archives?

Well many years ago at UCT, I searched for something on the Tasmanian aboriginals.
And it had a book, however as I discovered it was in the rare books library.

There was only one lady here at the time, but she was super-eager to help.
I still had to write everything on a card, and then she came back with this book.
And as I was paging through this bizarre Victorian book, I find a post-card!

The librarian was like OMG!
You just found an original postcard by Lucy Lloyd.
Figures, as it once was her book.
en.wikipedia.org...

Perhaps I should have slipped it into my pocket after all.

From the investigative program Carte Blanche: "UCT: Things We Lost In The Fire".

Bellville Civic Center on fire?

www.iol.co.za...

The Fall of UCT.

OK, quite literally,