A different view on current affairs & history
Blogs on Port Elizabeth
For the Muslim community, the Mosque is an integral part of communal life. Furthermore, when a musjid has been built and the ground dedicated to the service of God, it may not be deconsecrated.
Yet fate had placed two obstacles in the path of the Pier Street Mosque or Musjid ul Aziez of South End.
Main picture: Pier Street Mosque
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The King of the grifters, King Con, found himself in court and it has been a virtuoso display of petulance, bullying, victimhood, obfuscation, deflection, blame the other guy, denial and meandering logic. Although he didn’t have to attend proceedings until called, he elected to sit at his lawyers’ table and defiantly glare at everyone, particularly if there was a camera pointing at him. This is the glare he had stayed up all night practicing for his mugshot on 24 August when he was arraigned on election racketeering charges.
This trial is a civil case of fraud and he had already been found guilty of fraudulently overvaluing his properties. The court is now sitting to determine his sentence
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This blog is substantially based upon a brief talk given by Mrs Margaret Harradine at the Newton Park Library on the 16th May 1990.
Main picture: Newton Park in 1947
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Outdated sexual mores impede the development of humankind in multiple ways. In a previous blog I have already dealt with all the rules and regulations preventing males and females from sharing a swim. These rules were only dispensed with on the opening of King’s Beach in the early 1900s. Unbelievably female cyclists were frowned upon for cycling, let alone for being accompanied by men. Unlike their swimming counterparts, these restrictions were normative rather than rules and regulations based.
This is the story of a female who defied those norms.
Main picture: The Brown family cycling at the Van Staadens River
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In the space of a century, not only have the vehicles vastly improved in quality and performance but the modus operandi of the industry too. In this blog we will follow the work experiences of Rupert Charles Mouat during the 1920s when many vehicle sales, assembly and repair shops were located in Main Street. This influential period in the development of this industry would become pivotal to rescuing Port Elizabeth from insignificance as the Transvaal grew by leaps and bounds
Main picture: 1926 – General Motor’s first factory in Darling Street
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Like all families in which multiple generations share the same names, confusion reigns but doubly so when two are equally well known. So it was with the Loton Tippers of Port Elizabeth. The father was a merchant operating in Main Street whereas his son, also Loton Tipper junior was renowned as an athlete and as an administrator. Now probably only known for a steep road in Amsterdamhoek called Tipper’s Creek.
This blog is largely derived from an article entitled The Two Loton Tippers of Port Elizabeth by Margaret Harradine. Perhaps due to being related, even if distantly to the Tippers, her insight into the family is profound.
Main picture: Weekend and holiday cottages along the Swartkops River more than a century ago
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The suburb now known as Walmer; Port Elizabeth was originally a farm known as Welbedacht. It was loaned to a Johannes Potgieter in 1776 and subsequently granted to a Antonie Michael Muller[1] (B c 1770 married Aletta Maria Potgieter c 1782, died 21 January 1843, Uitenhage who was from Holland). On 24 May 1852, a portion of the farm that was granted to Anthonie Michael Muller in 1815, was divided in one morgan erven by his sons into a township called Walmer. The sons got into financial difficulties, and they decided to sell the farm in lots. Whilst it is not definitely known, a Mr D. MacDonald a Government surveyor probably gave the name. The auctioneers responsible for the sale went bankrupt immediately after the sale and the Muller brothers suffered financial loss thereby although some of the money was recovered in subsequent lawsuits. In 1860, the local newspaper the EP Herald reported tigers (leopards) in the Walmer area. In 1899, Walmer became a municipality. Walmer was named after Walmer Castle, the death place of the First Duke of Wellington 1769-1852.He is buried under the dome of St Pauls Cathedral by the side of another famous Englishman Lord Nelson.
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This description of Port Elizabeth is an extract from a publication entitled Cape Colony: its History, Commerce, Industries and Resources published in 1910.
Main picture: The Customs House at the entrance to the harbour with its tower
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Prior to the 1940s, holidays at the coast for those of modest means would automatically imply a camping holiday. It was the rare exception that a family’s coastal holiday would be in an hotel of which there was a dearth. By today’s standard’s the majority of these hotels would not even be rated as today’s One Star accommodation.
For the average family, it was either a canvas sail over one’s head or nothing at all.
Main picture: Camping at Humewood in 1910
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In South Africa and especially within Port Elizabeth, the picture of Grey High School is evocative of high academic standards and sporting prowess. The dream of every parent in Port Eliabeth is that their child would step inside the portals of this iconic school. All except one. The parents of my brother, Blaine, who was awarded a bursary to Grey due to his academic achievements at Hubert Hurd Primary School, but my parents rejected the offer. So, he never graced the portals of the school.
Main picture: Grey High School
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