Heritage status for Lesseyton Methodist Church

THE Chris Hani district municipality has pledged to help the Lesseyton Methodist Church have their 134-year-old church structure declared a heritage site.

Speaking from a crowded tent outside the church yesterday, CHDM mayor Kholiswa Vimbayo said: “To celebrate and close Chris Hani month, the church leaders came to us with the history of this church and asked that we launch this site as one of our major [tourism] sites.

“We are told they [the Methodist Church] played a huge role in the liberation of the country,” she said.

She said the church helped in the fight against apartheid, and that some leaders of the church had been freedom fighters.

The church’s heritage site project co-ordinator, Mkhululi Auwa, said the Lesseyton Methodist Seminary had been established as a mission station of the Wesleyan Missionary society in 1847, by Reverend Joseph Warner.

“Ten years later, an industrial institute was established at the mission. In 1883 the seminary was established and incorporated into the Lesseyton Mission with Reverend George Chapman as the principal,” he said.

Auwa said the Methodist Theological Training School had been established following its relocation from Healdtown near Fort Beaufort, when the seminary was transferred to Fort Hare in 1916.

“Children from Lesseyton and Komani used to be taught carpentry, wagon building, stone masonry and agriculture at the institute.

“Over more than 100 years of isolation the buildings collapsed and the only remaining structure is the church, which has since deteriorated due to poor or non-existent maintenance and vandalism.”

Auwa said the seminary had produced politicians who had gone on to lead the ANC and hymn writers whose hymns were still sung in churches around the country.

“Among the Lesseyton Methodist seminary alumni is Richard Mahabane, who began his training at the seminary in 1908. He was ordained as a minister in 1914 and in 1924 to 1927 he was the president of the ANC and again in 1937 and 1940.”

Auwa said another product of the seminary, Reverend Ellias John Mqoboli, had played a prominent part in the founding of the ANC in 1912 and had also written a number of hymns.

“The first South African National Native Congress conference was held at the church,” said Auwa.

The National Heritage Council of South Africa’s heritage manager, Siseko Ntshanga, said a structure that had been around for more than 60 years was, by the law of the country, a heritage site.

“We are here to facilitate that this site can be made a heritage site. It is our role to teach people about their heritage and show that we are proud of what was done by our people.” —