this 'n that

Hi, here are some random shots taken in the last few weeks. I am busy preparing for another exhibition so blogging time, for both posting and visiting, has been very sparse lately. There are all sorts of political issues i am dying to rant about, but they will have to stand in line and hopefully my addled brain will remember to come back to them when time permits!

A stroll along the beachfront one evening resulted in these shots, it was SOOOOOOOOOOO restful and beautiful absorbing all that reflected colour!






And just as breathtaking was the sunrise as seen from the Donkin reserve on Sunday the week before last.

The coral tree was in full bloom, they are interesting indigenous trees that drop their leaves and clothe themselves in masses of flowers which look amazing against the bare branches and blue skies. (Erythrina Caffra for those who need a formal introducion)





And after years of frustrated attempts to get inside Fort Frederick, we finally found it unlocked the other day. I enjoyed taking pix, but to be perfectly honest, after all those attempts, it was something of an anticlimax. I know the history of the place, (built in 1799, earliest remaining structure built in PE etc) but for any tourist who happened in there, the lack of any info would make it a pretty lame stop. But then what do I know, I'm just a girl, young Ethan was wildly excited by all the "big guns" (canons) around the walls and ran around making suitable machine gun noises.





Sepia seemed an apt medium to give a sense of history to the thick old stone walls of the blockhouse.

And then, unusual in this part of the world, we had a wonderful pyrotechnics display the other night, courtesy of mother nature, with the odd hailstone thrown in for good measure.
(A bit wobbly, handheld, there is a better one on PEDP.)

Spring? You coulda fooled me!!

We have had an interesting couple of days, so the rest of the trip to Capetown is still on hold.

A massive cold front swept through the southern part of the country, causing havok along the coast. As you might know by now, I ADORE foul weather, so I have been running around since Sunday like a kid in a candy store, snapping away and trying to capture images that convey the conditions. In the process I discovered a fascinating place and met one of life's unique people.

On Sunday Mr Farty and I bundled up warmly (not warmly enough if his hunched shoulders were anything to go by!!!)

..... and went out in the howling gale to see what the sea was up to. As the storm coincided with very high spring tides, warnings had been issued about rough seas and freak waves. Even as we were leaving home in Richmond Hill, we could see that the breakwater was taking a pounding.

Usually a pretty good gauge of the waves is the New Brighton Pier. On normal days you will see fishermen all along its length, and the pier is high above water level, but on Sunday the waves were engulfing it as they rolled by.

On Monday it was WAY worse, see our Spring Day post on Port Elizabeth Daily Photo for some spectacular shots taken from the freeway.

Because there was an offshore wind, the breakers were being whipped back and the spray was catching the lowering sun, and making lovely rainbow colours.

We went along to Kings Beach. Beach? What beach? The water was all the way up to the access road!

.... and the sand was blasting off the top of the dunes. The lifeguards tower was wallowing forlornly in the water.

Further along Restaurante de Mauro was taking a hammering too, and the spray being whipped off the waves was really beautiful.

Returning home, we spotted a huge flock of terns circling above Kings Beach.

The following day dawned cold and clear, and Max phoned to say the news was mentioning that there was snow in the Eastern Cape. On an impulse, I phoned K and asked if she and wee E would like to go off looking for it. On the way it struck me how different our sense of distance is in Africa, because we are so used to huge open spaces between towns. To us it is quite a normal practice to hop into the car and drive somewhere 300km away for the day. I realise most people who live in Europe will think it is totally insane to drive the equivalent of London to Scotland for a day's outing, but that's Africa for you!

We decided to head for Hogsback, and stopped on the way for breakfast in Grahamstown. Then we started towards Fort Beaufort, winding our way up the passes as we climbed inland.

We rounded a bend and squealed with delight as we spotted snow on a distant mountain.

So off we headed enthusiastically towards it. We passed through Fort Beaufort, and Alice. But as we left Alice, heading towards Hogsback, I could see that there was no snow on these mountains, the one we had seen was much further to the North East. So I phoned Mr Farty to send me the number of the delightful Granny Mouse house in Hogsback, where we have had some really nice stays. (And by the way, as I was hunting for a link, I realised that I promised in MAY that I would show you this magic place, and somehow time and events overtook me, so that is another journey we must do soon!) The ever friendly Ingrid laughed when I told her we had driven all that way to see snow, apparently it had snowed there the previous day, but had already melted by the time we got there, RATS! So we turned around and headed back to Alice, where we filled up with petrol. At the garage there was a guy in a really well maintained old Porsche, rather an unlikely car to see in this remote country area! I asked him about the snow, and he said it was FAAAAAAR away on the Winterberg Mountains. He lives there, 8km from the snow, and said even in a really powerful 4x4 it would take 2 and a half hours to travel that 8km because the terrain is so rugged. So that was the end of that! But as we headed back through Fort Beaufort, we decided to make the best of it, and as we passed the museum, we decided to pop in for a quick look around.

Boy did we underestimate that place! It was absolutely fascinating, and a well laid out balanced display showing the history and lifestyles from the point of view of the original tribes who lived there, as well as the British soldiers and Settlers who were tasked with establishing it as a frontier for the Colonial Government. Room after room of well labelled and well kept artefacts greeted us. Just as we were leaving, having taken in a fraction of what is there, because it would really take several days to see and absorb it all, a rather shabby looking man shuffled up to us. He asked what our interestrs were, and we said just general history. So he said that the museum was about to undergo a reshuffle, and would we like to see something else.

Now don't forget that we are city girls, who live practically under seige to criminals back home, and had a 4 year old with us. So every defense mechanism was bristling.... was it safe to go with this man who, although he looked like a hobo, seemed to be in posession of the keys to the museum? My natural liking for eccentrics took over, I didn't want to offend him, so we followed him into a little courtyard, with a lovely view across a river to the mountains beyond.

It was full of all sorts of bric-a-brac, which is going to find its way into the new displays.

He unlocked a door and ushered us into a large room, which turned out to be the old blacksmith's workshop. I still had ash in the fireplace and an ENORMOUS set of bellows, and a fascinating assortment of tools. He also showed us his magnificent collection of vintage clothes and uniforms.

I asked his name, and at this point he disappeared, leaving K and I looking at each other with slack jaws.He returned wearing a cap with a moose on it, told us his name was Moose van Rensberg, and proceeded to tell a long and involved story about how he had decided in his youth to become a professional bum, and earned the name on his travels. He eventually settled down in Fort Beaufort, married, and has now been the curator of the museum for the past 20 years.

He said we must go for a walk with him as he had something more to show us. Again the defences sprung up, and I tried to excuse us by saying we needed to find Ethan some lunch. He said "well you are wasting time then, come on" and Ethan said "granny, you are wasting time!" So we had no choice but to follow!

We walked along the street, enjoying the lovely old historic buildings,

....and came to one with the original old curved veranda, which turned out to be Moose's home, which he calls the Mooseum.

The dining room has no curtains, just a stunning collection of old bottles covering the window.

Moose led us through the kitchen and into a back garden that was like entering wonderland.

It was a menagerie of animals and birds in interleading aviaries, with bunnies, guinea pigs, hamsters, chickens, pigeons, budgies a tortoise, dogs, cats and many other types of birds co-habiting happily together. Ethan was delighted.

There was an outdoor pub in one corner, called the "Horny bar"! .....

and a door covered with old Apartheid era signs......

By this time we had long since had the feeling that we had entered a time warp, and moved back in time a couple of centuries......but t his feeling was completely confirmed when we left his house, and there across the street was a man taking photographs....

with an old bellows camera and a red cloth draped over his head! We returned to the car in a daze of sensory overload, and tucked into some 'padkos', (literally food for the road)

and the little guy was gone for the trip home!

What a magic day of dropping off the planet. We returned to a bit of harsh reality, in the form of a monster traffic jam caused by the freeway being awash with monster waves. You can read all about that on the Port Elizabeth Daily Photo blog if you follow the link near the top of this post.

DESTRUCTION OF HERITAGE

If you have spent any time on this blog, you will know that one of the hobby horses that I get a lot of exercise on is the issue of people who own heritage sites and then destroy them. In Port Elizabeth, our bete-noir is Irish Slum lord Ken Denton, who, in the eyes of many, is like a one man plague when it comes to heritage destruction.

Sadly, we are not alone. Last week a real treasure in Johannesburg was demolished, in blatant defiance of an order to protect the site. It was done by the company Imperial Holdings, and I want to appeal to all of you who read this and care about this issue to express solidarity with the people of Johannesburg by boycotting this company. I will do some research during the week and let you know what companies and products are involved.



I have already lodged a protest with Imperial Holdings, and sent letters to friends, MyPE chat forum and the local newspaper asking people to stand together and not allow this company to get away with such cynical and selfish actions. We need to send a strong message to all property developers that, no matter how big or rich they are, they cannot get away with robbing us of our heritage!



I received a fascinating newsletter today, written by Neil Fraser, and as he has put it all so eloquently, I am copying the letter here, rather than trying to rehash the facts.





"CITICHAT 3/2008

25 January 2008

Laundry Lamentations
At the end of the day what is it that makes some people care and others not give a damn? Why do some people thrill to experience examples of cultures and structures from a previous way of life whilst others see history and heritage as a stumbling block to their concept of progress? Why do we allow our lives to become so busy that in always focusing on the urgent, we forget about what is truly important?

Thousands of people a week must have driven past the Rand Steam Laundries buildings on the corner of Barry Hertzog Avenue and Napier Road without so much as a glance. With the actual laundry long since closed, some might have visited to do business with one of the small traders - blacksmiths, carpenters and furniture repairers - that operated from the site for the past 27 years. Few may have known the story behind the site and the buildings on it. Even fewer may have appreciated the sophistication of some aspects of the design and construction of the buildings to house what, in the early 1900s, was a new technology. Yet the complex encapsulated an amazing story that was part of the history of this crazy mining city. Now the buildings are gone, another example of man’s greed and of deliberate flouting the law of the land.

Charles van Onselen (“Studies in the Social and Economic History of the Witwatersrand 1886-1914 – ‘New Nineveh’) provides a fascinating history of the development of capitalism in Southern Africa. “The South African transition to capitalism – like that elsewhere - was fraught with contradictions and conflicts and its cities were thus capable of opening as well as closing economic avenues, and there certainly was always more than one route into or out of the working class”. One chapter that exemplifies this statement and provides amazing detail of this transition is that on the ‘AmaWasha’ – the Zulu washermen’s guild of the Witwatersrand.
The AmaWasha appeared to have emerged in the early 1870s in Natal through the lowly washermen’s caste of ‘Dhobis’ who had emigrated to Natal and started practicing their traditional profession – “the commercial washing of clothes”. Local Zulus were quick to recognise the opportunity to also earn an income from such work and even quicker to seize on the opportunity that the later discovery of gold on the Witwatersrand presented, accompanied as it was by rapid growth and services needs. By 1890, van Onselen records, there were already a couple of hundred AmaWasha, who had even adopted the ‘Dhobi’ turban, at work in the Braamfontein Spruit to the north of the mining camp. By 1896 there were over 1 200 washermen located at eight or more sites, the bulk of which appeared to have been concentrated in the Richmond area which was “by far the best developed of the sites….the owners provided eight wood and iron structures to accommodate some of the washermen and a small building in which the laundry could be safely stored overnight.” In October 1895, the washing sites were closed by health inspectors following a drought in that year that basically resulted in contamination of the work places. In 1896 a sub-committee of the Johannesburg Sanitary Board was, inevitably, appointed to examine longer-term solutions for public washing. As one would expect, the process provided an opportunity for capitalist connivance and corruption with vested interests trying to steer the process to their own interests even as far away as Witbank as well as to start mechanised processes in opposition to the labour intensive ‘AmaWasha’.
The first steam laundry was in fact founded before 1895/6 whilst the Auckland Park Steam Laundry Company was floated in June 1896 “with a registered capital of 12 500” (pounds Sterling). This was situated on the Richmond Estate, the centre of AmaWasha activities until they were forced to Witbank. There are still some rocks near the canalised stream on the site – the last exposed natural section of the Amawasha site.
The saga continued over a number of years; a return of some AmaWasha to the city, then their removal to Klipspruit, the growth of Chinese laundries and, of course, increasing technology. Of their removal to Klipspruit, van Onselen records that “the municipality was laying long-term plans to develop a permanently segregated community at Klipspruit” which would be both largely self-supporting bur possibly income generating. “The idea of segregation being paid for by the segregated held enormous appeal for white administrators. By 1906, an ironing room, a fenced in drying site and the first of one hundred specially designed concrete washtubs had been erected at Klipspruit. With blind ruthlessness and staggering cynicism the Council prepared to move the washermen for the last time – this time to an uneconomic washing site that shared its setting with the municipal sewerage works.”
History repeats itself! This time it is an aptly named corporation, Imperial, that‘with blind ruthlessness and staggering cynicism’ has destroyed not just one of the last local examples of steam driven industry, but crushed a place where South African history converged: the struggle of poor people to earn an honest living; colonial segregation; indifference; displacement; discrimination; lack of compassion and the eventual disintegration of the AmaWasha.
So how could this happen? After all we do have good legislation in the form of the National Heritage Resources Act of 1999, the Preamble to which contains, inter alia, these fine words: “This legislation aims to promote good management of the national estate, and to enable and encourage communities to nurture and conserve their legacy so that it may be bequeathed to future generations……our heritage is unique and precious and it cannot be renewed…..It helps us to define our cultural identity and therefore lies at the heart of our spiritual well-being and has the power to build our nation……it deepens our understanding of society…….”
Well, the story appears to be that the Imperial Group, through their property company, bought the site in March 2006 specifically for the construction of a showroom. The previous owners evidently warned them that this was a heritage site; the Parktown and Westcliff Heritage Trust (PWHT), knowing the importance of the site and what it represented, applied for the site to be ‘provisionally’ protected in terms of the National Heritage Resources Act of 1999 and the Provincial Heritage Resources Agency of Gauteng (PHRAG) gave notice to that effect in the Provincial Gazette of 20 September 2006. PWHT also lodged an objection to any rezoning of the site for motor showroom purposes. A reporter who covered the purchase at the time was told by someone from Imperial that they weren’t interested in keeping the old buildings – they would demolish first and risk the fine, “It’s only R10 000.” The company’s attorneys denied that this comment had been made, stating that their clients were fully aware of the National Heritage Resources Act and that they had no intention of doing anything that would contravene the Act!

On Wednesday 9th of January this year preparations for demolition were underway, the roof sheeting was being stripped. PW&HT’s Flo Bird spoke to the responsible Imperial executive pointing out that they were acting illegally – he claimed that they had a demolition permit from the Chief Building Inspector of Johannesburg. Flo pointed out that the City does not outrank the Province in such matters and requested that the demolisher be instructed to stop work, which was done. Apparently the Johannesburg building inspector had issued a Dilapidation Notice, but he had warned Imperial that they needed a permit from the Heritage Authority (PHRAG) before they could proceed with demolition.

On Thursday 10th the demolition work started again, but this time with a difference. In Flo’s words “There was a mechanical grab smashing the buildings to pieces. Several large laundry buildings, two of the oldest on the site, already lay in small pieces. The grab hauled the masonry smashed it to the ground and then drove back and forwards crushing it. Any metal piece that survived that treatment was lifted in the air and crashed down until it crumpled. It was horrifying. Clearly the instruction was to destroy the buildings completely.”

At 3.30pm a stop order was delivered by PHRAG. At that stage there were still a number of heritage buildings left standing including the picturesque cottages at the corner of Napier and Barry Hertzog. Ignoring the stop orders from both PHRAG and the City, Imperial demolished the cottages on Sunday.

So what sanction can now be applied? I would think that there must be parts of the Companies Act that have been transgressed as well as all kinds of issues related to King 2 on Corporate Governance (can corporations take decisions that, knowingly, are against the law of the land for their own ends, as seems to be the case here?). But the main legislation would be the National Heritage Resources Act of 1999. Section 27(18) of the Act states ““no person may destroy, damage, deface, excavate, alter, remove from its original position, subdivide or change the planning status of any heritage site without a permit issued by the heritage authorities authority responsible for the protection of such site.”

Section 51 (1) (a) that any person who contravenes the above “is guilty of an offence and liable to a fine or imprisonment or both such fine and imprisonment as set out in Item 1 of the Schedule.” Item 1 of the Schedule states “a fine or imprisonment for a period not exceeding five years or to both such fine and imprisonment.” In a previous case, the fine was R300 000-00 with a five year suspended sentence!

However, the Act goes further – in terms of 51(8) a court may also order the guilty party to ‘put right’ the result of their actions or order the party “to pay a sum equivalent to the cost of making good” AND in terms of 51 (9) an order can be served on the party that no development should take place on the site for a period of ten years except for making good the damage and maintaining the cultural value of the place.

Seems to me that a seemingly deliberate and premeditated breaking of the law needs the whole book thrown at it. The previous heritage structures must be rebuilt and the story of Amawasha and the mining town they serviced must be told and portrayed so that “it may be bequeathed to future generations” – the cottages can once again house the craftshops and the site should be turned into an active place for the community. The story of the perfidy of Imperial and the punishment meted out to them in terms of legislation should also be encapsulated so that everyone becomes aware of the law and the consequences of arrogance in disregarding it. Anything less would be a travesty.

London has the Imperial War Museum, at least we could have the Imperial Rand Steam Laundry Museum!

Cheers, neil

PS. Want to help? I had this message from Flo Bird:

“Please support us in pressing for the perpretrators to be brought to justice, for the land to be frozen for development for 10 years and for the reinstatement of the heritage buildings on the Rand Steam Laundries site.

They were not marble palaces, but simple industrial buildings built of wood and iron, bricks and plaster. Even Imperial should be capable of rebuilding those.

Please go to our website: http://www.parktownheritage.co.za/heritage.htm and press on the newsflash. If it doesn’t come up immediately you need to press the refresh button.

1. Please copy and paste the petition, filling in your name, and e-mail it back to us.

2. Please pass on to all people on your mailing list. "

Urban Renewal Update

I have realised that, on our Port Elizabeth Daily Photo Blog, I showed the work in progress on an upgrade of our city centre, in an Urban renewal project initiated by the Mandela Bay Development Agency, which is overseeing the revival of the city centre. But I forgot to give an update on the project, or feature the grand opening. I took photos, and somehow thought I had posted them, but apparently didn't! Very remiss of me because it took place in November last year...oooops! So to make good on that oversight, and at the same time to get up to speed on some exciting new initiatives, let's take a look at the revival of old PE.

I'll repeat what I wrote there, to give you the background on the project:

All cities go through cycles of growth and decay, and the centre of Port Elizabeth is no exception. Established in 1820, she grew rapidly and a bit haphazardly at first, to become, by the early 1900s, the South African port with the biggest exports. This was mainly because the diamond industry in Kimberley, and the Ostrich feather and mohair industries were all in their heyday, and used PE to export their goods.But as these waned, she was overtaken by other ports.

She became the centre of the South African motor industry, and boomed again for a while, but then fell on hard times in the 70s, when Ford relocated inland. Buildings started looking shabby, crime increased and suburban malls were developed. Decentralisation took place, and the old city centre became a place few residents would visit.

This is now changing, we are taking our city centre back from the criminals, and the town council is making serious efforts to rejuvenate the area, by diverting traffic and creating a pedestrian area full of market stalls, sidewalk cafes etc, with strict policing to make criminals unwelcome in the area.

Well here are the preparations for the street festival which was the grand opening for the upgraded City Centre.........

Building equipment still frantically completing last minute paving etc is moved to a nearby street, as the project was to continue further down the street after the opening.

A temporary bandstand was set up on Market square, next to the beautiful old City Hall building, and musicians were checking sound while we were there, so we got a cool concert preview!

and ta-rah... HERE IT IS. The new super dooper pedestrian mall leading down the main street in the city centre (Govan Mbeki Ave), with unique prototype vendors stalls which provide shade and lock up facilities for vendors, so that they don't have to schlep their goods back and forth.

Well done PEM and MBDA, we look forward to Phase 2!

Another exciting Project was announced last week. I frequently lament the run down state of so many of our historic buildings, especially those owned by Irish slum lord Ken Denton. However, he is not the only culprit, one of the really sad things has been to see the Municipality let one of its own properties degenerate into a filthy mess. I refer to the lovely old PE Tramways building in the Baakens River Valley. (To see some of the lovely old brickwork on this building, take a close look at the top of the gable in this photo)

If this interests you and you REALLY want to see the current disgusting state of this old treasure, check out this article on the very informative MyPE website.

Anyway here she is at the moment, taken from the St Marys graveyard at sunrise. The good news is that she is about to get a much needed facelift. It was announced last week that the Municipality has awarded Pambili Developments the tender to redevelop the Tramways building. The development will contain a mix of tourism, leisure, entertainment and office space, with construction due to begin in April 2008. The Tramways redevelopment project will be managed by Mandela Bay Development Agency which was also responsible for the Market Square and Govan Mbeki Avenue upgrade.

You know I can't resist vintage photos, here is the Baakens River Mouth and the tramways building taken in 1865, when the river still formed a natural lagoon at the mouth. The Tramways Building is on the point where the bank juts into the river and the road does a dog leg to the right of the photo. (Sorry about the horrible quality, it was a photo of a photo that appeared in the Herald Newspaper today.)

And here it is in the late 1800s after the river had been channeled into a canal, to the left of the building (Tramways is the one with the 3 belching chimneys!)

As a comparison, here are two from a similar viewpoint at Fort Frederick, one taken in the late 19th century, and the other a couple of months ago.

However, there is an issue here, the Baakens may look like a dried up insipid little river, and to be honest, most of the time, it is! (Even stagnant and smelly to tell the truth!) But it has a nasty habit of coming down in flood at fairly regular intervals. And the Tramways Building usually bears the brunt of it, being right on the bank of the inadequate canal through which it flows. Obviously this is a major concern for anyone who is thinking of spending a 100 million on an upgrade of the building!

This is a famous photo of a major flood in the Baakens River, in 1908, when this mule ended up on a roof! You can see the Tramways building on the top right of the picture, with water washing through it.

As recently as August 2006, the river flooded again, this torrent was the road leading past the Tramways Building, as you can see the street lights which are normally on the centre island are now in the river!

The road was completely washed away, and it is a major project to replace the bridge, so for now, it is still blocked off, and a detour takes you around the hole in the road.

Given all this, it is good news to hear that a project is being considered, which will remove the canal, dam up the river to create a natural lake, and establish it with indigenous plants and waterlife to produce a balanced ecosystem. This will tend to absorb much of the impact of future floods, as well as creating a pleasant environment around the revamped building. Let's hope this plan gets off the ground soon. It is exciting to see that people are at last waking up and entertaining these visionary ideas, and actually beginning to implement some of them. Watch this space!!