Why is UCT’s Jagger Library still boarded up?

The UCT Jagger Library building is boarded up and surrounded by a padlocked fence. Photo: Ashraf Hendricks

• UCT’s Jagger Library, once home to the UCT archives, special collections, the African Studies collection, and the reading room, remains boarded up.
• A “re-imagining” process in 2022 did not result in any firm decisions about what to do with the building.
• UCT says redesign plans are still being developed.
• Heritage Western Cape has urged the university to restore the building.

Nearly five years after a devastating fire on the University of Cape Town (UCT) campus, the Jagger Library building is still boarded up.

A “re-imagining” process was completed in 2022, but the building’s future use still needs to be decided, says university spokesperson Elijah Moholola.

The building, one of the country’s most important research facilities, housed the university’s archives, African Studies Collection, and state-of-the-art reading room.

In April 2021, a runaway fire spread down the slopes of Table Mountain, destroying or damaging several buildings on the university campus. The Jagger building was completely gutted. Many books and archival materials were lost.

Salvageable books and materials were removed and taken to an office park in Mowbray, where they were painstakingly restored and conserved. The surviving archives have since moved to Deneb House in Observatory, where researchers can access them by appointment, says Moholola.

But the Jagger building is standing empty. GroundUp visited the building last week. There was a fence surrounding the building, with a gate locked with a padlock. The windows were boarded up, and we saw no activity inside or around the building.

Moholola says that while the building “has not yet been reoccupied in a conventional sense, it would be inaccurate to suggest that it has remained entirely unused or unattended since the 2021 fire”.

After the fire, a temporary roof was installed to protect the building, says Moholola. A task team conducted a “re-imagining process” to develop ideas for how the building can be used in the future. The results of the process are published on a dedicated website.

But the re-imagining was “intentionally ambitious in scope, and in some cases deliberately speculative,” he says. “Not all ideas generated through this process are necessarily viable, equitable or achievable.”

Moholola says that “the question is not only how to repair a building, but how to ensure that Jagger contributes meaningfully to a contemporary African, urban, post-colonial university, and to the evolving nature of libraries as places of knowledge, encounter and public engagement”.

The university is still developing proposals for how to rebuild the library, and costs of the project will only be determined once the redesign plans have been approved. The buildings “may not be the same as before,” said Moholola.

The reading room was completely gutted by the fire in 2021. Archive photo: Ashraf Hendricks.

Heritage authority urges restoration

The Jagger Library was built in 1931 and expanded in 1943. It is protected under the National Heritage Resources Act, which means any alterations will require approval from Heritage Western Cape (HWC).

HWC CEO, Dr Michael Janse van Rensburg, says no application has yet been received from the university for redesigning the Jagger building. The building is “of significant heritage value to the Western Cape”.

“In light of the time that has since elapsed, HWC encourages UCT to initiate the necessary processes towards restoration in the near future,” said Janse van Rensburg.

Asked about the delays, Moholola said: “Moving from exploration to implementation requires a professional, disciplined and decisive approach, which takes time to achieve.”

“Haste would risk producing an outcome that is neither durable nor true to the university’s values,” he said.

GroundUp previously reported that a dispute over the building’s insurance contributed to the delays. Moholola told GroundUp the insurance issue has now been resolved.

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