DESPATCH
Province : Eastern Cape (until 1994, Cape of Good Hope Province).
District Council : Western Region (until 1978 Uitenhage Divisional Council)
Official description :
Per pale, the sinister half per fess: I: A brick-built brick kiln chimney
proper; II: a: or, a hand holding a bricklayer's trowel in bend proper; b:
a water lily on water proper.
Motto: Handhaaf en bou (Uphold and build).
Origin/meaning :
In the first field the background is blue sky at the top, but for the rest
obscured by cloud. The chimney, which is square in plan and tapers towards
the top, has six marks on the dexter face which resemble windows, but the
illustration is insufficiently clear to confirm this. The third field is
divided per fess, the upper half similarly being a blue sky with cloud, the
lower half being water represented by roughly drawn wavy white barrulets on
blue, but not in any clear heraldic form. The water lily comprises a pad
floating on the water with one open bloom and one flower bud, the two
flowers both being above the line of division.
The community had a village management board from 1942 and became a
municipality in 1945. The arms were adopted in 1957. It is not stated
whether the arms were registered, but in the light of the unheraldic
appearance they clearly have not been registered with the State Herald.
An information sheet provided by the municipality states that the chimney
represents the brickfields that existed in the area in former years and
which gave the town its name (the name arose, reportedly, because the
bricks were dispatched to other destinations); the water lily represents
the Swartkops River flowing through the town, and the hand with trowel
represents the huge strides Despatch has made.
Literature : Information send by Mike Oettle (pmoettle@tmecl.co.za), scan provided by Community
News, Port Elizabeth.
coats of arms on-line ! 
