Rare and valuable law books‚ some dating back to early Roman-Dutch time‚ were destroyed in a fire at the University of KwaZulu-Natal’s (UKZN) Howard College law library on Tuesday night.
Law lecturer Franaaz Khan told TMG Digital on Wednesday that‚ while fire fighters had managed to contain the fire and limit damages‚ the faculty had lost priceless material.
She said staff were not yet sure of the exact extent of the damage‚ but of the books that “many date back to early Roman-Dutch time”.
Roman-Dutch law has its origins in the Netherlands in the 17th and 18th centuries.
“Some are rare as well. It is devastating to watch the library in which you spent many hours as a student burn up in flames. Helpless feeling!” said Khan.
Scores of former law students expressed outrage that the library had been set alight during the protest.
Democratic Alliance councillor Nicole Graham posted that “seeing pictures of UKZN's law library‚ where many of us studied for years‚ gutted by fire is absolutely heartbreaking and infuriating”.
Others‚ however‚ expressed outrage that the public was more concerned about a building than the rights and treatment of students at the various campuses.
Youth activist and political commentator Pearl Pillay said: "We’re so focused on caring about the abstract that we ignore the reality of the experience of poor‚ black students.
“We’re so quick to condemn and label people as imbeciles‚ but are we asking why people resort to such measures in the first place?”
- TMG Digital/Sunday Times
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