The Earlier St Cyprian’s Church – 1879

Long before the familiar stone walls and tower of today’s St Cyprian’s Cathedral rose on Du Toitspan Road, Kimberley’s Anglican congregation worshipped in considerably more modest surroundings. The first Anglican services on the diamond fields were held in tents during the early 1870s. The congregation later used the Oddfellows Hall on Market Square before plans were made for a more permanent church.

A prefabricated wood-and-iron building was imported from England and, on 28 August 1879, Charles Warren, the British soldier and surveyor who would later become General Sir Charles Warren, laid its foundation stone. The new St Cyprian’s stood in Jones Street, now Phakamile Mabija Road. Its construction did not go according to plan. As the building neared completion late in 1879, a violent whirlwind blew the structure down.

Undeterred, the congregation rebuilt it, and Bishop Allan Webb dedicated the church on Low Sunday in 1880. For almost three decades this comparatively modest wood-and-iron church served Kimberley’s growing Anglican community. It survived fire, the upheavals of the diamond town and even the Siege of Kimberley. During the siege, a Boer shell passed through St Cyprian’s on 14 November 1899, causing damage but failing to destroy the building.

By the beginning of the twentieth century, however, Kimberley’s Anglican community had outgrown what one former rector famously described as its “tin shanty”. Plans were drawn up for the far grander church on Du Toitspan Road that we know today as St Cyprian’s Cathedral. The nave of the present building was dedicated in 1908, ending almost 30 years of worship in the old Jones Street church.

Did You Know?

The present St Cyprian’s Cathedral was not yet a cathedral when it opened in 1908. It became the cathedral church following the creation of the Diocese of Kimberley and Kuruman in 1911.

The old wood-and-iron St Cyprian’s building was subsequently dismantled and its materials sold by public auction.

Grizelda “Zaza” Cjiekella-Lecholo

Another very different chapter of Northern Cape history is associated with 28 August 2015, when Grizelda Boniwe Cjiekella-Lecholo, the province’s MEC for Education, died in Kimberley following a short illness. She was 45 years old. Known widely as “Zaza”, Cjiekella-Lecholo was born on 14 April 1970 and grew up in Paballelo, Upington. Her involvement in public life began during her school years, and she later became active in political and community organisations.

She entered the Northern Cape Provincial Legislature in 2003 and became Deputy Speaker the following year. In 2009 she was appointed MEC for Education, a position she still held at the time of her death. Cjiekella-Lecholo also served for a period as Acting Premier of the Northern Cape while Premier Hazel Jenkins was incapacitated. Her career placed her among the province's prominent political figures during the first decades of democratic South Africa. Her sudden death in Kimberley on 28 August 2015 brought tributes from across the province and nationally, particularly from the education sector. She was subsequently accorded a Provincial Official Funeral and was buried in Kimberley’s West End Cemetery.

Did You Know?

Before becoming MEC for Education, Grizelda Cjiekella-Lecholo served as Deputy Speaker of the Northern Cape Provincial Legislature. She briefly taught at the same Upington secondary school where she had completed her own schooling before moving into public life. At the time of her death, she was not only the Northern Cape MEC for Education but had also previously served as Acting Premier of the province.

Kimberley’s Story Continues

The events of 28 August span two very different periods of Kimberley’s history. The laying of a foundation stone in 1879 recalls a diamond town still building its first permanent institutions, while the death of a provincial political leader in 2015 reflects Kimberley’s much later role as the administrative capital of the Northern Cape. Separated by 136 years, both events form part of the continuing story of a city whose buildings, institutions and people have played important roles far beyond Kimberley itself.