[imagesource: Anthony Molyneaux]

There are some things you can put a price on.

For example, a two-pack of ‘ripe and ready’ Hass avocados from Woolies will set you back R43, which I consider daylight robbery.

We’re all slaves to smashed avo on toast now, and are powerless to resist.

The value of other things is incalculable, such as the damage to the works housed in UCT’s Jagger Library (or Jagger Reading Room), and other buildings on campus damaged by the recent fires.

A spokesperson for Old Mutual Insure has estimated that insurance claims from UCT related to the fire could hit the R1 billion mark, whereas Vice-Chancellor Mamokgethi Phakeng estimated the damage to be around R500 million.

Neither of those figures can ever replace the historical worth of the diverse historical records, African studies collections, and other materials destroyed in the blaze.

With his pen at the ready, Zapiro has perfectly illustrated this, whilst reminding us that damage to our country continues day in and day out.

His cartoon published yesterday, on The Daily Maverick:

Charlotte Maxeke Hospital, in Joburg, was engulfed by flames this past weekend, amidst allegations that the hospital’s fire hydrants were not working.

One estimate, from back in 2019, puts the cost of State Capture at around R1,5 trillion during the second term of the Jacob Zuma administration.

Ace Magashule, during his time as the Free State premier, oversaw the Vrede dairy farm project, which yielded no results, other than R330 million being paid to Estina, a Gupta-linked company.

The Judicial Commission of Inquiry into Allegations of  State Capture, known as the Zondo Commission, is estimated to have cost taxpayers about R830 million, without any prosecutions thus far.

According to Rob Hutchinson, MD of public advocacy group Dear South Africa, the cost will top R1 billion by the time it wraps up.

I could go on, but you get the point.

We cannot put a price on what has been lost at UCT as a result of this fire, but as a country, we are still battling another, dangerously out of control enemy.

[source:dailymaverick]