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Civic Heraldry of South Africa Wapens van owerhede in Suid Afrika

Province: Eastern Cape (until 1994 Cape Province)
District Council: Western Region (previously Albany Division).
Additions: 1995 Rini

Origin/meaning :

Arms granted by the College of Arms in 1912 and registered with the Bureau of Heraldry in 1994 (Government Gazette dated 29 April '94):

These arms replaced the arms originally devised for the Grahamstown Municipal Council. The town (technically a city, since it has been an Anglican episcopal see since 1853) was incorporated as a municipality in 1862. One of the council's first acts was to appoint a sub-committee to draw up a coat of arms, which was adopted in September that year by the council.

The first and fourth quarters are the arms of the town's founder, Col John Graham of Fintrie. The second and third are the arms of Jan van Riebeeck, first commander of the Cape of Good Hope. His arms were granted (suspended from an anchor) to the Raad der Gemeente Kaapstad (Cape Town Community Council) in 1804, and the three annulets were later incorporated into the arms of the Cape of Good Hope Colony (Cape Colony). The presence of Van Riebeeck's annulets symbolises Grahamstown as part of the colony.

The leopard (Leo pardus) and giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis) represent wildlife once common in the Albany district and seen as symbolising the wildness of the area when the British settlers first arrived in 1820. The ostrich (Struthio camelus) was also a frequently seen part of the area's fauna, and became commercially significant in the second half of the 19^th century. In the grant of 1912 the ostrich became three ostrich feathers. These are wing plumes, which in nature only occur as pure white (on male birds) or white with narrow black stripes (on females). A black wing plume is one that has been dyed, and can be seen as a symbol of the ostrich feather industry.

The motto, meaning "Courage and toil" is that of the Earl of Fife. The wording was seen as referring to the life of the early settlers.

The name Rini is now the usual Xhosa name for Grahamstown. However, during the apartheid years it was used officially as the name of the municipality created to administer the black townships which had previously fallen under the administration of the Grahamstown Municipality. Moves were being made to adopt arms for the Rini Municipality when in 1995 that structure was re-amalgamated with Grahamstown.

Literature : Information provided by Mike Oettle and taken from http://www.geocities.com/armoria

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