#Heros #UCTFirefighters #Leadership #Teamwork.
On Sunday morning the 18th of April 2021 a friend of mine woke me up to tell me that there was a fire on Table Mountain. At first, we thought that it was not going be as massive as it ended up being. To cut the long story short, almost 4000 students were evacuated from their residences to alternatively safe and comfortable places. This resulted in the suspension of all academic activities for a week. Food and other essential goods were provided to the students during their stay at these alternative places until students returned to their residences on the 22nd of April 2021.
Given such an overwhelming support, I would like to extend my heartfelt gratitude to the University leadership team for the love, care, and concern that they demonstrated by giving students time to heal from a catastrophic event. Let me also take the opportunity to express my gratitude to companies that opened their doors to accommodate students in such a short notice (Hats off to you! I salute you and I thank you).
Having said what has been discussed above, one can wonder and ask what then happened to the fire, how did it end? One might want to call them legends, but I prefer to call them heroes. These heroes are the so-called firefighters who played a significant and vital role in stabilizing the fire from causing further destruction. It takes courage and passion for one to play such an imperative role and I would like to say to them (I salute you for your amazing service). Fighting is not all about using machine guns, even a pistol can help a soldier survive in the battle, so the role played by some students cannot go unnoticed. Hence, I would like to throw a big shout to my fellow colleagues who grabbed the fire extinguishers to help fight the battle, I salute you for showing such bravery.
Lastly, I would like to also throw a big shout to the individuals, private sectors and companies who donated food and other essentials. One person once told me that a hungry man is an angry man but with the large amounts of food that were donated anger never surfaced, it was just hope, happiness and joy in students’ eyes. They say water is life, but I think water and food sustain each other.
In conclusion, I would like to thank every person who pray to the Almighty asking Him to strengthen students and the University’s hearts from such a disturbing event. I THANK YOU.
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The Centre for Curating the Archive, in association with Michaelis Galleries (UCT) and UCT Libraries will stage a memorial exhibition marking the one-year anniversary of the tragic Jagger Library fire at the Michaelis Galleries. The exhibition will open to the public on Wednesday, 20 April 2022.
In an email to UCT students, Vice-Chancellor Professor Mamokgethi Phakeng said:
“Thank you for your patience as we seek ways to return to full academic activity at the University of Cape Town under COVID-19 regulations. Our first priority is to ensure the health and safety of everyone who needs to return to campus buildings.”
UCT is deeply grateful to all the donors who supplied food and other essential items for our students, and to everyone who has so generously offered other forms of support and assistance.
Everyone who would like to support the #UCTFire emergency relief fund is urged to please make financial donations to UCT through the UCT Alumni Ways to Give web page.
Donations can also be made by EFT using the details below:
Account name: UCT Donations Account
Bank: Standard Bank of South Africa
Branch code: Rondebosch Branch, 025009
Account number: 07 152 2387
Swift code: SBZAZAJJ
Please include your donor name if you so wish, as well as the reference for your donation, e.g. Name Surname, #UCTFire.