A different view on current affairs & history
Prior to Bagshaw Gibaud’s closure at the rapacious hands of asset strippers in 1973, it was a prominent producer of shoes in South Africa. Like most of the foremost companies commencing operations in the 1800s, at the helm were visionaries and entrepreneurial men. The duo of Gibaud and Bagshaw were no exception.
Main picture: Original buildings of Bagshaw & Gibaud
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The ANC is riven with fools but if there’s a court jester then that title belongs to Fickle Mbalula. Ten days after the Russians invaded a sovereign Ukraine, Fickle tweeted to his groupies that he had just landed in the Ukraine. Pray tell, what macabre joke was that coming from a supposedly responsible cabinet minister? Well I suppose it’s only to be expected from a manchild who styled himself as Mr Razzamatazz in a previous incarnation. A more recent persona which he adopted was Mr Fear Fokol* when he was made Minister of Police. This is from the manchild who had such a hard on for Beyonce that he kept on wanting to invite her to perform at the annual sporting awards at eye-watering cost. His most recent falter ego is Mr Fixit which he anointed himself with when he was appointed Minister of Transport.
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As daunting as the challenge was, Rutger Metelerkamp rose to meet it by acquiring the farm previously owned by Thomas Ignatius Ferreira known as Papenkuilsfontein. Part of this danger stemmed from restive Khoikhoi and Xhosa tribesmen but also due to the utter isolation from civilisation. Taken all together, Rutger Metelerkamp [1780-1849] must have risen to the challenge. He also foresaw the potential of Klaaskraal, a former Khoikhoi “village” on the property later to be known as Bushy Park owned by the well-known local family of Lovemores.
It was intrepid entrepreneurs such as Rutger who would become the backbone and mainstay of economic development in this land. For that we should salute such men. Yet history now casts many pejoratively as colonisers and worse.
Main picture: Painting of Cradock Place by Thomas Baines
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While Jan Hoets might not strictly have been a full-time resident of Port Elizabeth, he was closely connected to two residents who were intimately involved in business in Port Elizabeth and who were largely responsible for Port Elizabeth’s initial growth: These prominent citizens were John Centlivres Chase and Frederick Korsten with the latter person being Hoets’ son-in-law. This arose due to his marriage to Korsten’s eldest daughter, Maria Johanna Charlotta. Of course by marrying a Chase meant that Hoets was also related to the Chases.
By all accounts Hoets was a successful merchant in Cape Town with its more lanquid less frenetic lifestyle. Here the bureaucrat predominated unlike Port Elizabeth which possessed a more energetic business like mien, the very anthesis of Cape Town.
Main picture: Jan Marthinus Hoets, grandson of Jan Hoets, and his wife Arabella Helen Centlivres Chase
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The State of the Nation Address (SONA) normally follows a predictable pattern. This year was no different. It kicks off with a distasteful display of female politicians trying to outdo each other in the mutton dressed as ham stakes. Someone should tell them the address part is about a speech, not a fashion parade. Someone should also tell all the ANC politicians that the walk up the red carpet is not like the Grammys or the Oscars but, for them, a walk of shame and, for some, a perp walk. Then it was on to the address itself.
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Once upon a time, in the time of our forefathers, a hamlet was accidentally created on the shores of Algoa Bay. Without inlets, coves, and navigable rivers, the littoral lacked a natural harbour. The need for freshwater is what attracted the passing vessels like a magnet to this nondescript point on the otherwise barren coastline. Being unintended, the town grew frenetically but without hindrance, plan or scheme to become the butt of derision for its unkempt, scruffy appearance and undefined & also unnamed roads if these tracks could be called that. Quaint was not one of the epithets used by visitors to describe the village.
But this was about to change
Main picture: The carcass of the Victoria Hotel. Note the bricked up windows in a futile attempt at preventing further destruction by the vandal hordes [Photo by Anton de Klerk]
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The oldest golf club in Walmer and one of the oldest in South Africa, the Walmer Golf Club is still in existence and is prospering despite initially not possessing security of tenure as it operated on a year-to-year basis. This constraint over its first twenty years of existence made the members and the committee loath to invest in its development. Hence development lagged behind the members’ ambitions for the Club. Largely based upon FA Longworth’s book, succinctly entitled Walmer, this blog provides a comprehensive history of the trials and tribulations as well as the birth pangs of a golf course in another era.
Recognised as Port Elizabeth’s premier 9 hole golf course, Walmer Golf Club, commonly known as Little Walmer, lies in the heart of the city.
Main picture: Walmer Golf Club
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From very young, F.A. Longworth started to explore the Baakens Valley. From these explorations, Anthony would develop an abiding interest in the Baakens and for that reason it probably defined him. Longworth would come to love everything about the Baakens during the 1920s and 30s. It was only in the twilight of his life that under his wife’s incessant urgings would he put pen to paper not only about the Baakens River but also the whole town of Walmer, the centre of his universe.
This descriptive essay is extracted from his book simply entitled Walmer.
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South Africa entered the Korean War on the side of the United Nations issued with their WW2 era Mustangs. During January 1953, Number 2 Squadron had their Mustangs replaced by North American F86F-30 Sabres on loan from the USAF. This would be the first jet flown by the SAAF. After the war, the SAAF would acquire Sabres. It was one of these that would crash in Port Elizabeth. On the 15th July 1960, Canadair CL13B Sabre Mk6 #379 was written off near the main airport after colliding with Sabre #353. Fortunately, the pilot, Lt HJW Bothma, survived.
Main picture: Crash scene
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Most residents regard the Baakens River, apart from its lower extremity, as being a vital green lung for the expanding city. Despite this, to solve a seemingly intractable transport problem, the solution proposed by the City Engineers Department was to convert a treasure into a paved highway. Would the nascent conservation/environmental groups win the battle over the engineers’ dream project?
Main picture: Aerial view of the lower reaches of the Baakens Valley with the freeway superimposed upon it
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