Municipal Heraldry

MUNICIPAL (or 'civic') heraldry was introduced in South Africa in 1804, and hundreds of city, town, village and district authority coats of arms have been created since then. As a result of the 1995-2000 local government reforms, most of them are now obsolete, and since 2002 a new generation of municipal arms has been developing to take their place. They reflect the government imperative to bring heraldry into line with the 'African Renaissance'.

Municipal arms

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Like other official and private bodies in South Africa, local authorities have the right to assume and bear coats of arms. In the 19th century, it seems to have been mostly municipalities in the Cape Colony which did so, but during the 20th century the use of local authority arms became widespread across South Africa.

Germiston; KwaNobuhle; Villiersdorp

Quite a number of local authorities had their arms granted. Cape Town's and the rural drostdijen (districts) arms were granted by the Batavian Republic's (Netherlands) commissioner-general in 1804. Between 1899 and 1961, at least 23 councils obtained grants from the English or Scottish heraldry authorities. Between 1963 and 1969, thirty-three were granted (or, in some cases, re-granted) by the provincial administrators, under the Heraldry Act. Grants of arms in South Africa ceased in 1969.

Until the late 1940s, the standard of municipal heraldry was fairly low. It began to improve thanks to Ivan Mitford-Barberton and, later, the Heraldry Society of Southern Africa too, who designed or re-designed many arms in the 1940s, '50s, and early '60s. After the provinces introduced legal protection of municipal arms, the Cape, for one, insisted that coats of arms had to be heraldically correct. Since 1963, the Bureau of Heraldry has guided the development of municipal heraldry.

Many municipal arms allude to local economy and / or landscape. Wheat, mealies, grapes and other fruits, sheep, rams, and bulls are commonplace in the arms of rural towns. Cogwheels symbolise industry, and many Transvaal towns had mining equipment in their arms. Wavy bars and fesses represent rivers and bays, dancetty chiefs represent mountains. Some coats of arms allude to, or are based on, the personal arms of the towns' founders or namesakes.

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Local authorities and their arms

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You'll find a gallery of selected local authority arms here.

Cities and towns — Most local authorities are towns or cities. Their coats of arms typically consist of shield, crest, and motto. Until the 1980s, there was evidently no hard and fast rule about supporters, with the result that some cities had them and others didn't, and even some small rural towns had them. Since the 1980s, the Bureau of Heraldry has registered them only for divisional councils, regional services councils (now district municipalities) and metropolitan councils (cities). Since the mid-1990s, some councils have registered coats of arms which are flanked by feathers or leaves or trees in lieu of supporters.

Cape Town, the 'mother city', was the first to acquire arms: the Batavian Republic authorised its local authority in 1804 to bear the arms of the town's founder, Jan van Riebeeck, superimposed on the anchor of Good Hope.

Bellville; Humansdorp Division; Peri-Urban Areas Board

Drostdijen — Until 1828, the Cape Colony was divided into local authority districts known as 'drostdijen'. Five of them were granted armorial seals in 1804. Like Cape Town's, they displayed the coats of arms of the district's founder or namesake superimposed on the anchor of Hope. The British authorities abolished the drostdy arms (but not Cape Town's) in 1814.

Divisional councils — From 1828, the rural drostdijen were called 'divisions', and from 1855 they were administered by divisional councils (comparable to county councils in the UK). Many of the councils had coats of arms, in which local flora and fauna, livestock, and agricultural produce, were favoured charges. Some had supporters. When the number of councils was reduced from 84 to 38 by means of amalgamations in the late 1970s, several arms were transferred to, and re-registered in the name of, the new councils. Divisions were abolished when regional services councils were established in the late 1980s.

The Association of Divisional Councils registered arms which displayed a quill pen, a caduceus, and a plough (BoH 1972).

Peri-urban areas board — In the Transvaal, rural areas were administered by a single Peri-Urban Areas Health Board under the auspices of the provincial administration. It was granted a coat of arms, depicting a surveyor's chain, in 1966. The Orange Free State had a similar board, but it appears not to have had its own arms. Natal's equivalent was the Local Health Commission (later 'Development and Services Board'), which apparently used the provincial arms.

Sebokeng BLA; Lower Orange RSC; Tlhabang Urban Council

Black local authorities — In the 1970s and '80s, the national government established 262 'community councils' (later called 'Black local authorities' (BLAs)) to administer the African townships on the fringes of the White-run cities and towns. Several dozen registered coats of arms, which consisted of (heater-shaped) shields and mottoes, with mural crowns atop their helmets. Authorities which regarded helmets as too Eurocentric could omit them and place the mural crowns directly atop the shields if they wished. The BLAs were abolished in 1996.

District municipalities (formerly regional services councils) — In the mid-1980s, the government established about four dozen regional services councils (called 'joint services boards' in Natal) across the country. They were renamed 'district councils' in 1996, and 'district municipalities' in 2000. The Bureau devised a standard format for their arms: a shield ensigned of a triple-towered metal mural crown, a motto, and a pair of indigenous birds as supporters. Several dozen arms have been registered since 1988; those registered since 2002 have one of the new mural crowns instead of the triple-towered design.

Urban councils — These small local authorities existed in the former Bophuthatswana homeland. In 1993-94, the Bureau of Heraldry designed and registered coats of arms for a dozen of them. Each consisted of a shield and motto, and the helmet was topped with a specially-devised mural crown with spearheads issuing from the circlet. These councils, and their arms, are now obsolete as a result of local government reorganisation.

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Mural crowns

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Mural crowns have been used in South African municipal heraldry since at least 1898. Sometimes it forms part of a crest, but often it takes the place of the crest and is placed on the helmet, or directly on top of the shield in lieu of a helmet. In addition to the English-style mural crown found in pre-1960s arms, there are nine South African patterns:

Mural crowns

1. Mural crown (c1969) - highly stylised, and used for only a few years;
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2. Mural crown (1970s) - the basic pattern, resembling the mural crowns of Napoleonic-era heraldry in France; it may be of a colour or a metal;
3. Mural crown with three towers issuant (1988) - used for regional services council arms; the crown is always metal;
4. Mural crown (1980s) - used for town committees, town boards, health committees, and other small authorities; it was always in a colour;
5. Mural crown of huts (1992) - used for local area council arms; it was in colour or metal, with doors of contrasting tincture;
6. Mural crown with spearheads issuant (1993) - used for urban council arms in Bophuthatswana; it was always metal;
7. Mural crown (1996) - used for transitional authorities during the first phase (1996-2000) of local government reorganisation; it differed from the standard pattern by being encircled by a coloured band;
8. Rustic mural crown (2002) - similar in shape to the basic mural crown, but the central section is silver with a blue bar across it and the upper and base sections are stonework rather than masonry; it can be in metal or a colour;
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9. Mural crown with palisades (2002) - used with the new generation of municipal arms; it is metal, with a brickwork pattern;
10. Rustic mural crown with wooden palisades (2002) - a low mural crown of stonework, with palisades of wooden stakes issuing upwards from the battlements and embrasures; the crown is usually brown.

The new (2002-pattern) mural crowns are not linked to specific classes of municipality.

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Legal protection

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Voluntary registration of municipal arms, to protect them against unauthorised use, was introduced in 1949. Until 1963, it was on a provincial basis, from 1963 to 1969 it was jointly provincial and national, and since 1969 it has been national only. It's an offence to use a registered municipal coat of arms without authority, and an offender can be prosecuted and fined, or else be sued for damages.

Between 1949 and 1969, a local authority could register its 'sole and exclusive right' to its arms by publishing an illustration and description (often in the form of a blazon) in the Official Gazette of the province in which it was situated. Publication had to be approved by the provincial administrator. This system was introduced in Natal in 1949, in the Transvaal in 1951, and in the Orange Free State and the Cape Province in 1953 - in the Cape (for one), the administrator insisted on confirmation that arms were heraldically correct before he would authorise publication. Around 200 arms, and a few pseudo-arms and non-armorial devices, were registered under this system.

Since 1963, arms have been registered at the Bureau of Heraldry, under the Heraldry Act, and protection applies throughout the country (and formerly in South West Africa while that territory was under South African administration). From 1963 to 1969, could be approved by the Heraldry Council and then granted by the provincial administrator by means of a notice in the provincial Gazette, before they were registered by the Bureau. Since 1969, municipal arms have been registered in the same way as other arms, i.e. the Bureau gazettes the application for objections before registering the arms and issuing a certificate.

You'll find further information about registrations here. Details of coats of arms registered up to early 2001 are available on the Bureau of Heraldry Database on the National Archives website.

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Sources/References