A different view on current affairs & history
Blogs on Port Elizabeth
The first Mormon missionaries from the United States arrived at the Cape in 1853 and several months later were propagating their new doctrine in the Eastern Cape. The two leading converts were Eli Wiggill and Henry Talbot. As the epicentre of the religion was Salt Lake City, Utah in the USA, the converts decided to relocate to America.
Only three unusual incidents regarding Mormon members will be covered in this blog.
Main picture: Mormons arriving in the new land – Amerixa
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Up until the outbreak of the Anglo Boer War, Port Elizabeth had never been inundated with refugees. However the ABW was another matter altogether. This situation arose due to the fact that the “Uitlanders” or foreigners were at the heart of the dispute between the Boer Republics and the British Empire. Being a British colony and as they were often English subjects, the Cape Colony was morally obliged and responsible to assist the refugees.
Main picture: Refugees from the Boer War living in cattle stalls
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Two members of the Geard family gained prominence in Port Elizabeth – Charles Geard and his son John Geard. Despite the blog’s title, it will encompass the lives of both Geards. The death of John Geard was an “inconvenient” loss because at the time of his death he was compiling a biography of their lives. Such a loss inevitably reduces the depth of the resulting end product. So it is in this case.
This blog encompasses the two segments of John’s life; first the autobiographical section and then the rest of his life recreated by the author of the biography A Memoir of the Late John Geard from “scraps of paper, correspondence and newspaper clippings“.
Main picture: John Geard
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One of the requirements of the recently arrived English military in 1795, was a fort on the hilltop but just as important was a road stretching from the landing beach at the mouth of the Baakens River, to the fort.
Apart from its military significance, it would be the only road up the hill until White’s Road was constructed by Henry Fancourt White in 1850. Bookended by Baakens Street at the bottom and Belmont Terrace on the hill, this road has lost its significance when roads were cut into all the kloofs as far as Albany Road [formerly Cooper’s Kloof].
This blog covers all the significant buildings which occupied this historic street. The majority of them have already met their ultimate fate – demolition. In the case of Newspaper House, it will be “demolition by neglect”. Even the last of the historical or significant buildings will shortly be – as John Cleese would intone – ex buildings.
Main picture: 1818 Military map by Lt Wily with Military Road marked in yellow
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It had been exactly thirty years since the previous disastrous flood in which South End bore the brunt of the storm. This time it was midday on a Wednesday when the skies opened. By the time that the cloudburst subsided only an hour and a half later, it had deposited approximately 127mm on the town with the usual water courses bearing the brunt while copious quantities of rubble took their revenge by being deposited on Main and Strand Street. Damage was also caused in North End as well as South End.
Yet again a weather phenomenon known as a cut-off low was the ostensible culprit which had done its best or should that read worst.
Main picture: Pier Street in 1897
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By every metric, South Africa is bleeding. It’s as if we’ve been infected by a haemorrhagic virus like Ebola which causes every organisation in the country to bleed. Actually, it’s a well-known virus that’s been around for 30 years – the ANC.
Barring SARS, SARB and the Department of Finance, every department and most municipalities are dysfunctional and supplying fewer or more shoddy services every year. Institutional memory and competence were replaced with anyone from a disadvantaged group as long as they vaguely matched the job requirements. Nor did they look too hard at the applicants’ experience, track records or qualifications. This combined with preferential procurement created fertile ground for the virus to flourish until incompetence and corruption now dominates every facet of the public sector economy.
This SMAC will not look into the Health Department which is eyeing the private Medical Aid reserve funds or that Water and Sanitation needs up to R1 trn to sort it out or anything similar. The remit is too large. This SMAC will restrict itself to the sorry sordid sagas of the SOEs and their toxic debt piles that are bankrupting them and hobbling the economy.
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It took Port Elizabeth 59 years from 1858 to 1917 to establish a ragtag fire service and then convert it into a professional body. But it was worth it. Now they would have to prove their mettle. This portion of the history has mainly been obtained from an article entitled Short Historical Notes on the Port Elizabeth Fire and Emergency Services Department by D.C. Sparks
Main picture: Firemen at the Fire Station
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Self-absorbed and engaged with their entrepreneurial spirit with a rampant desire to progress, the residents of Port Elizabeth in the first half century of the 1800s ignored the reality that they resided in a semi-dystopian world. Due to the lack of a local authority, the town lacked any form of central body to control its development. To do so would imply the imposition of rules and regulations. But conversely, it would enforce standards. Irrational behaviour conforms with the concept known as – The Tragedy of the Commons. Examples abound. Crooked streets, different plot sizes hindering throughfares, vacant land becoming dump sites, dumping sewerage on the beaches and many more. The town was a veritable patchwork of order and disorder, utopia and dystopia.
It was only by awakening the awareness of the town’s residents via his newspaper, The EP Herald, that John Paterson sensitized the citizenry to the need for a local authority. Once they had established a Town Council, only then came the hard part, the implementation. Amongst the myriad of issues was the need to create a Fire Brigade. Budget constraints would shackle many initiatives on the path to create a professional Fire Department
Follow the town as it claws its way from makeshift equipment and volunteer firemen to a professional force in 1917. In a second blog on the Fire Brigade, I will deal with the later years post 1917
Main picture: St Mary’s Church after its destruction by a fire on 9 March 1895
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Every community has its “nutjobs”. In Port Elizabeth’s case it was Miss Frances Livingstone Johnston who arrived by ship from Australia at the end of 1896. Her proclivity was a hatred for church altars. This malady or affliction manifested itself in the form of pyromania. At least three attempts at arson can be attributed to her actions. On the night of the 30th March and 1st April 1897, Frances successfully reduced the Holy Trinity Church in Havelock Street to ashes.
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The ANC was founded on 8 January 1912 which, if you are of the minority who have arithmetic skills, know that it makes the ANC 112 years old. I don’t know why I bothered as you are likely to have reading skills as well otherwise you would not be reading this. Actually, I introduced this contentious note because during the week long birthday celebrations we will be told how the ANC has created a better life for all and free access to education will be one of them, not that they moved the meter much in the 30 years they’ve been in power.
With the ANC facing its most strenuous electoral challenge this year, we will have the galling sight of the posturing politicians outdoing themselves in regaling us with their achievements. It’s more likely to be a networking opportunity (in the corruption sense) and a chance for the ANC parasites to sell all manner of ANC themed regalia, probably including black, yellow and green rough riders.
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