History: 1963-

Since becoming a republic in 1961, South Africa has made great strides in establishing a distinctive heraldic idiom, which co-exists alongside the longer-established Afrikaner and British traditions.

In 1963, the Department of Education, Arts & Sciences replaced its Heraldry Section with a fully-fledged Bureau of Heraldry and a Heraldry Council, based on the 1956 Pelzer committee's recommendations. Dr Coenraad Beyers was the first State Herald (1963-64). He was followed by Norden Hartman (1964-82).

Corporate, municipal, official, and personal armigers (foreign as well as South African) could register their arms, badges, flags, and other heraldic representations at the Bureau for legal protection, provided they were heraldically correct.

Until 1969, official bodies could obtain grants of arms from the state president, and local authorities could obtain them from the provincial administrators. Two official arms, and about a hundred municipal arms, were granted during this period.

For the first time, personal and family arms could be registered. Matriculation, i.e. re-registration of arms for descendants, was authorised in 1969.

Between 1970 and 1981, the ten self-governing African "homelands" which the National Party government created as part of its apartheid system, registered official arms and flags. Some arms were depicted on African shields.

Government department arms were introduced in 1971. About two dozen were registered over the following twenty-six years.

The Bureau began to improve the quality of municipal heraldry in the 1970s, and introduced a distinctive mural crown.

The defence force also improved its heraldry, and during the 1970s both the army and the air force introduced proper heraldic coats of arms for their units, to replace the non-heraldic patches and emblems previously used. They were registered at the Bureau, but details weren't made public.

The Bureau established a distinctive Finnish-influenced armorial style, and began to introduce innovations, such as a distinctive pattern for family association arms in 1974, new lines of partition (the first being based on the traditional Cape Dutch farmhouse gable), and a standard pattern for technical college arms in 1978.

In 1975, HM King Goodwill Zwelithini of the Zulus became the first African traditional leader to register personal arms.

The activities of "wapensmouse" ("bucket shops"), trading in representations of "family arms", were outlawed in 1980.

Frederick Brownell was State Herald from 1982 to 2002.

Local government reorganisation in the 1980s saw the design and registration of dozens of new arms, for the short-lived Black local authorities such as Soweto, and three dozen of the new regional services councils. The Bureau established a standard pattern, and a distinctive mural crown, for the RSC arms.

Apartheid ended when South Africa was reconstituted as a democratic state, with equal rights for all races, in 1994. The four provinces and ten homelands were reorganised into nine provinces, and a new national flag, designed by State Herald Frederick Brownell, was adopted.

Political transformation indirectly made many arms obsolete. The old provincial and homeland arms were replaced by nine new provincial arms, registered between 1996 and 2004. New national arms, based on traditional rock paintings, were adopted in 2000.

The scaling down of the defence force saw the disbandment of many armigerous units. Local government reform between 1996 and 2000 made a few hundred municipal arms obsolete.

Some corporate arms disappeared through the amalgamation of formerly racially-exclusive bodies, and through an emerging preference for logos instead of "colonialist" heraldry. And significant White emigration may well have removed some personal arms from South Africa.

The early 2000s saw a surge in the number of foreign arms submitted for registration, particularly by holders of Scots and Irish feudal baronies and European noble titles. Because of the difficulty in verifying titles, the Bureau placed a moratorium on them in 2002. About two dozen personal standards - most apparently belonging to foreign armigers - were registered at that time, too.

Themba Mabaso has been State Herald since 2002. Since then, the Bureau of Heraldry has been drawn into the Department of Arts & Culture's "heritage transformation" programme, aimed at promoting African cultural traditions and the new national symbols.

The 2004-05 reorganisation of higher education made several university and technikon arms obsolete.

The Bureau is busy devising and registering arms for the new municipalities which were established in 2000. Only a few dozen have been gazetted thus far, which suggests that this process may continue for several years to come.

1910-1963

References/Sources/Links

South African Heraldry Website © Arthur Radburn