Grocott's Mail
  • NEWS
    • Courts & Crime
    • Features
    • Politics
    • People
    • Health & Well-being
  • SPORT
    • News
    • Results
    • Sports Diary
    • Club Contacts
    • Columns
    • Sport Galleries
    • Sport Videos
  • OPINION
    • Election Connection
    • Makana Voices
    • Deur ‘n Gekleurde Bril
    • Newtown… Old Eyes
    • Incisive View
    • Your Say
  • ARTSLIFE
    • Cue
    • Makana Sharp!
    • Visual Art
    • Literature
    • Food & Fun
    • Festivals
    • Community Arts
    • Going Places
  • OUR TOWN
    • What’s on
    • Spiritual
    • Emergency & Well-being
    • Safety
    • Civic
    • Municipality
    • Weather
    • Properties
      • Grahamstown Properties
    • Your Town, Our Town
  • OUTSIDE
    • Enviro News
    • Gardening
    • Farming
    • Science
    • Conservation
    • Motoring
    • Pets/Animals
  • ECONOMIX
    • Business News
    • Entrepreneurship
    • Personal Finance
  • EDUCATION
    • Education NEWS
    • Education OUR TOWN
    • Education INFO
  • Covid-19
  • EDITORIAL
Facebook Twitter Instagram
Trending
  • Abalone poacher nabbed in Makhanda
  • Brumbies taste defeat under controversial circumstances
  • Another Makhanda boxing legend passes away
  • Luyolo Matiwane makes the Eastern Cape under-17 team
  • RMR 89.7 FM celebrates radio licence renewal
  • As whistleblowers come forward, it’s our duty to protect them
  • Makhanda Fire Brigade praised by residents
  • Two deaths shock Makhanda
Facebook Twitter Instagram
Grocott's Mail
  • NEWS
    • Courts & Crime
    • Features
    • Politics
    • People
    • Health & Well-being
  • SPORT
    • News
    • Results
    • Sports Diary
    • Club Contacts
    • Columns
    • Sport Galleries
    • Sport Videos
  • OPINION
    • Election Connection
    • Makana Voices
    • Deur ‘n Gekleurde Bril
    • Newtown… Old Eyes
    • Incisive View
    • Your Say
  • ARTSLIFE
    • Cue
    • Makana Sharp!
    • Visual Art
    • Literature
    • Food & Fun
    • Festivals
    • Community Arts
    • Going Places
  • OUR TOWN
    • What’s on
    • Spiritual
    • Emergency & Well-being
    • Safety
    • Civic
    • Municipality
    • Weather
    • Properties
      • Grahamstown Properties
    • Your Town, Our Town
  • OUTSIDE
    • Enviro News
    • Gardening
    • Farming
    • Science
    • Conservation
    • Motoring
    • Pets/Animals
  • ECONOMIX
    • Business News
    • Entrepreneurship
    • Personal Finance
  • EDUCATION
    • Education NEWS
    • Education OUR TOWN
    • Education INFO
  • Covid-19
  • EDITORIAL
Grocott's Mail
You are at:Home»Uncategorized»100 year celebration 100 years later
Uncategorized

100 year celebration 100 years later

Michael SalzwedelBy Michael SalzwedelAugust 30, 2012No Comments3 Mins Read
Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn Tumblr Email
Grahamstown Bi Centinery 016.jpg

 

On 14 August a commemoration ceremony was held on High Street to celebrate the centenary of the placement of a memorial stone by former Prime Minister Jan Smuts to celebrate the 100 years of the founding of Grahamstown. 

 

On 14 August a commemoration ceremony was held on High Street to celebrate the centenary of the placement of a memorial stone by former Prime Minister Jan Smuts to celebrate the 100 years of the founding of Grahamstown. 

 
The event was organised by local advocate Jock McConnachie, who saw it as fitting and needing to be done. “It is the first city in South Africa with a proud history of accomplishments,” says McConnachie.
 
A lover of local history and the town, he believes that, too often, people get stuck in the negative. People get stuck in the era of John Graham and the frontier wars, but he also believes that “we must acknowledge both the good and the bad.”
 
According to McConnachie, Jan Smuts, a former war major before becoming Prime Minister, came to Grahamstown one hundred years ago as a sign of reconciliation between the Afrikaaner and the English. “People were, at first, afraid of his coming because of his past and built trenches preparing for war, but he came in peace and reconciliation,” says McConnachie.
 
Present at the ceremony were members of the First City Regiment and decedents of Jan Smuts himself, Izak Smuts. No municipal representative was present, however. “We planned this discreetly and the municipality was only informed later,” says McConnachie.
 
Dr. Julia Wells, historian and collaborator with the Makana’s Project 200, says that they would have loved to have been part of the ceremony had they been notified on time. “We were not directly approached, it was through word of mouth,” says Wells. Also, the mayor was away when by the time he was told.
 
“Our approach is celebrating what we have achieved over 200 years,” says Wells. The story of Grahamstown, she believes, should be from bullets to books. Grahamstown once a sight of war to knowledge. Incorporated with the municipality, this too could spread the message.
 
According to McConnachie, however, this needed to be done immediately. “We couldn’t let the 14th of August go by,” he says.
 
Wells hopes that there can be other means in which the two could work together. More especially through the various projects that the municipality has in store where they get the greater Grahamstown community to collaborate with one another in telling the history of the town.
Previous ArticleYoung Directors PLAY!
Next Article Rhodes students stabbed in Kenton
Michael Salzwedel

Comments are closed.

Tweets by Grocotts
Newsletter



Listen

The Rhodes University Community Engagement Division has launched Engagement in Action, a new podcast which aims to bring to life some of the many ways in which the University interacts with communities around it. Check it out below.

Humans of Makhanda

Humans of Makhanda

Weather    |     About     |     Advertise     |     Subscribe     |     Contact     |     Support Grocott’s Mail

© 2023 Maintained by School of Journalism & Media Studies.

Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.