by KRISTIN ENGEL
Cape Town - Pick n Pay assisted UCT with a further 6 000 crates over the past weekend, to help salvage and restore the damaged academic resources from the historic Jagger Library during the recent Table Mountain National Park fires, bringing the total number of crates donated to 8 000.
In the destroyed Jagger Reading Room, a unique collection of more than 83 000 items of African studies material and other specialised subjects were housed, as well as 1 300 sub-collections of unique manuscripts and personal papers.
After receiving the first 2 000 crates, Ujala Satgoor, Executive Director of UCT Libraries, said that this was a solemn period as UCT mourned their history and the loss of a great institutional asset.
“We are comforted by the outpouring of help from all corners to salvage some part of this significant collection, so that future generations may continue benefiting through the expansion of knowledge and consciousness from others that came before them,” Satgoor said.
“Today we want to thank Pick n Pay and CHEP for their rapid response and generosity that added to the conservation and restoration process.”
Suzanne Ackerman-Berman, transformation director at Pick n Pay, said that the first 2 000 crates were supplied by CHEP, early on April 23, after receiving the call for urgent assistance late the night before.
“We were contacted by the UCT executive team, who were in urgent need of crates to help store books, documents, maps and manuscripts from the Jagger Library.
“Over the weekend, they contacted us saying they were in dire need of more pallets and we sent our trucks to collect crates, offered by the Paul Cluver Wine Farm in Elgin, as well as from our Longmeadow Distribution Centre in Johannesburg. Delivery of these additional 6 000 crates commenced on Sunday, and would have been completed on Tuesday,” Ackerman-Berman said.
“The Jagger Library is very much a part of not just the City of Cape Town, but the entire country. Some of our greatest leaders walked these halls, including some of the most revered international academic minds, all of whom have contributed to positive change in South Africa and the rest of the world.”