30 April 2021 | Volume 80 | Edition 1
UCT Fires: Students displaced to Cape Town Hotels for 5 days With fires ravaging UCT’s Upper Campus on Sunday, April 18th, students were evacuated from residences and allocated to hotels around the city. By Jeremy Simpson Dep. Editor-in-Chief
D
uring devastating fires that severely damaged parts of Upper Campus, including the Jagger Library and the HW Pearson building, numerous UCT residences were evacuated with students subsequently being housed for 5 days in Cape Town’s surrounding hotels. As smoke blanketed Rondebosch and Mowbray, Residences began evacuations and over 3000 students were directed to Main Road and the Rondebosch Common. From these locations, Jammies transported students to the Graduate School of Business, departing from the Mowbray Bus Station. Breakwater Lodge, a Protea hotel affiliated with GSB, received the cohort of students. Over the week, GSB became the central rendez-vous point for res students requiring accommodation, food and other necessities. Key to the success of the operation were the staff at GSB who, according to multiple reports, were instrumental to finding accommodation for the students. Students were
Source: Ernst J. Calitz
housed at 36 different hotels, the furthest being in Camps Bay and Century City. While other residences have all returned, approximately 400 students from Smuts and Fuller are currently being housed in some of four of these hotels as repairs to their residences will likely take months to complete. Pura Mgolombane, Executive Director at Student Affairs, told VARSITY that the Department of Student Affairs (DSA) “intends to return the students [ back to UCT] by no later than May.” Tim Low, the Kopano Assistant Warden, along with the SRC ensured that students’ needs were met, with the SRC often meeting up with students to find out what they were needing. They also ensured that students were fed and that they
received other necessities, sending out requests for donations of food, clothing and necessities. A large amount of food provided to students was also donated from the Gift of the Givers Foundation. “As smoke blanketed Rondebosch and Mowbray, Residences began evacuations and over 3000 students were directed to Main Road and the Rondebosch Common.”
However, the operation brought challenges. As students descended on the Waterfront Campus, they were frantically allocated to multiple different hotels scattered around the city, making clear communication a particularly challenging feat throughout the week according to Tim Low. Furthermore, there were initially no leadership struc-
tures at the individual hotels, further complicating communication. In response, Sharon Mogale, the SRC member in charge of International Students, as well as Tim Low implemented a system of leadership in a few of the hotels and set up hotel WhatsApp groups to iron out any communication problems. Furthermore, Mogale and Low communicated directly with the hotel management if any issues arose. While the work done last week has been highlighted by many in the UCT community, sources involved in the operation have suggested that there is a lot to reflect on, including how the university approaches the crisis as well as how student leaders communicate with the student body during these times.
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