Gqeberha Magistrates’ Court, 584 Govan Mbeki Street, North End — the 1934 Law Courts that still do the work Port Elizabeth used to send them.
The city is Gqeberha. The Gazette said so on 23 February 2021. The name is isiXhosa — originally the name of the Baakens River and of old Walmer Township — and it begins with a click that still trips a visiting attorney on the first Monday. Say it slowly: the click, then qe-be-rha. The Windy City. The Friendly City. Nelson Mandela Bay. The building at 584 Govan Mbeki Street, North End, is the Gqeberha Magistrates’ Court. The lintel, on a stubborn afternoon, still argues for Port Elizabeth.
That argument is the fun of this page and the seriousness of it. A magistrate in the Eastern Cape hears Gqeberha on the roll, writes Gqeberha on the order, and walks out under a stone that has not yet caught up. The Department of Justice was, years ago, going to tidy the magisterial-district names when the districts themselves were rationalised. Some lintels are patient. JASA’s point is not the spelling. It is that the officer inside that building is a judicial officer of the Republic, whether the signwriter has arrived or not.
Today’s name | Gqeberha Magistrates’ Court |
The name the stone remembers | Port Elizabeth Magistrates’ Court, North End |
Street | 584 Govan Mbeki Street, North End, Gqeberha, 6001 |
Switchboard | 041 502 5111 · Court manager 041 502 5133 |
The building | The 1934 Law Courts — Public Works Department — still sitting, still serving as the magistrates’ court. |
Fun fact for the tea room | Gqeberha is a click. Practise it before you call the roll. The Baakens still flows. The wind still arrives on time. |
JASA’s Eastern Cape members sit in this building and in the branch and periodical courts that feed it. Gelvandale, KwaNobuhle, Kariega, Humansdorp, Hankey — the map is longer than a Johannesburg attorney thinks. When we say we represent magistrates across South Africa, we mean the officer who calls the Gqeberha roll on a Monday when the wind is coming off Algoa Bay and the recording machine has a mood. Send us the photograph of that notice board. We will print it.
A small kindness to visiting counsel
If your papers still say Port Elizabeth High Court, the Judge President already asked you to stop. If your notice of motion still says Port Elizabeth Magistrates’ Court, the clerk will know what you mean, and so will the magistrate. Write Gqeberha anyway. The click is part of the dignity of the place.