Big bad wolf chases Cape Town's overdue library books all the way home

What big blushes you have, library users in Cape Town.

No fewer than 10 copies of Ladybird’s version of Little Red Riding Hood were handed in during city libraries’ “fine-free week”.

The 10th-century folk tale tied for top position on the returns chart with Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland as 19,351 overdue items worth almost R3.2m were returned.

The mayoral committee member for community services, Zahid Badroodien, said fines worth R150,000 were waived during the annual amnesty.

The number of items returned tripled 2018’s total, and included 98 study guides, 7,351 adult fiction titles, 7,660 junior fiction titles, 960 DVDs and 335 magazines.

"I am blown away by the response this time around. The value of the fines waived pales in comparison to the value of the books, magazines and DVDs that we have recovered through this exercise and so the trade-off is certainly worth it,” said Badroodien.