www.metromedia.co.za History Archive Port Elizabeth
Original Source PE Library
St. Peter’s church, one of Port Elizabeth’s earliest Christian buildings [1877] overlooking the city’s oldest cemetery [1820], now stands in ruins and is reminiscent of Britain’s many crumbling religious iconic structures of a bygone era. The end of Britain’s church age must not of course be confused with the powerful church life experienced by South Africans, a Church planted by the Christian men and women and missionaries who settled here.
Historically South End had a social mix of people of differing cultural backgrounds who made their living from the fishing industry which offered a hard and uncompromising life, and many Malay who were part of the early fishing industry are buried in the Malay area adjacent St. Mary’s Cemetery. It is not surprising then to find that the people of South End housed the poorest of the poor, this being mirrored in those times by rodent infestation, alcoholism, crime, broken social structures, and differing Christian and eastern religious adherents. The building of structures commemorating an eastern deity in South End further squeezed out Christians who preferred living in a Christian community.
Within this social milieu St. Peters numbers had declined to such an extent that at the time the government came to move the community to clear the semi slum conditions St. Peter’s was effectively no longer in use. Other church structures in the area, of a more contemporary period survived, including those of eastern religious origins which still can be seen standing in relatively good condition across the road from the South End Museum. The community was moved relatively intact to another serviced area but with many of the residents strongly objecting.
The derelict shell of St. Peters stands starkly against the Baakens River embankment near the flyover, its walls crumbling, and now forms part of a trail covering many of the city’s historical sites which begins at the 1820 Settlers Botanical Gardens. There are also darker forces at work around the church site where a pentagram had been drawn on the floor within the walls of old St. Peters, perhaps to mark it as a coven, the place where Christians once stood worshipping and praying with Bible in hand, now the inner floor slab is virtually overgrown with Buffalo grass.
The whole South End area since its regeneration is now middle upper class with beautiful dwellings, the museum and fire station, but during the country’s political unrest many opportunists used the upgrade of South End including the demise of St. Peters as a political motive to further their cause. However, like a Hollywood re-enactment, when the old guard changed at Buckingham Palace, so to speak, the practices of the “new” guard remained the same, and many serious cases of human rights violations can be highlighted which in many instances are far worse and numerous than those of their predecessors, see the website www.censorbugbear-reports.blogspot.com
Despite the adverse stories concerning South End it had a rich history of missionary work and reflected the cultural diversity of Port Elizabeth’s citizens. However at the time of writing St. Peter’s offers an opportunity for Christians to rebuild the church structure to its former glory, before it is too late, as the area is already earmarked for high rise domestic development, if not on the old site itself.
