NELSON MANDELA METROPOLE
Province: Eastern Cape.
Formed: 2000; out of Port Elizabeth, Despatch, Uitenhage and parts of the Western District Council area.
Arms formally brought into use on 20 June 2002. They are not registered, the Metropolitan Council having decided not to accept proposals from the Bureau of Heraldry. There is no shield as such, the shield area being loosely outlined with a pair of tusks and divided into quarters. They may be blazoned:
Arms: Quarterly argent, the vertical division marked with a row of triangular sets of beads, gules, or and azure, and the horizontal division marked with a barrulet wavy azure, ensigned by a barrulet wavy azure voided in the centre: 1. Three human figures sable, representing a family of father, mother and child; 2. Dexter a cogwheel, sinister a motorship in sidways profile, headed for the sinister, and a claw hammer in bend, all proper; 3. An aloe in bloom proper; 4. A bull elephant statant affronty proper, inclined to the sinister. The field enclosed by a pair of elephant tusks sable, conjoined in base by beadwork in the form of alternating triangles in a white setting, azure, vert and gules.
Crest: The shield ensigned by a kierie and a spear crossed per saltire in base with, between the shafts, a sun in splendour.
Motto: Working together for ubuntu.
Arms explained:
An official explanation forms part of the programme for the launch of the new symbol. It reads:
“The elephant tusks and the beadwork, which outline the shield area, allude to the diverse cultural heritage of the region.
“The blue wavy lines represent water; both the rivers of the metropolitan area and the sea. The repetitive pattern down the middle of the shield area represents a backbone.
“The three silhouetted human figures represent a family, and also the values of nurturing a new generation and its preparation for the future.
“The cogwheel, hammer and ship symbolise industry, commerce and trade in the metropole and progress in these areas of activity.
“The aloe, with its coloured inflorescences, is not only a striking example of the flora of the metropolitan area, but is also used medicinally, both by traditional healers and by modern scientific medicine.
“The elephant is part of the indigenous wildlife of the Algoa Bay area. The world-famous Addo National Park houses descendants of an elephant population that once roamed freely in the Port Elizabeth and Uitenhage areas.
“In folkore, the elephant, with its strong family and herd ties, has come to symbolise leadership which reflects intelligence and wisdom.
“The city’s natural environment, represented jointly by the aloe and the elephant, is a major tourist drawcard and is vital to the ecological integrity of the metropolitan community.
“The sun in splendour symbolises, in both African and Western traditions, the birth of a new era.
“The combination of kierie and spear represents authority, as well as the protection of all the poeple and assets in the region. The fact that they are more horizontal than vertical is a sign of peace.”
There are a number of anomalies in this assemblage of symbols. Firstly there is a predominance of black on a white background, a colour theme favoured by both the executive mayor and the graphic design artist whose proposal was chosen as a basis for the eventual design, and who produced this design.
This is particularly noticeable in the black colouring of the tusks. In nature, elephant tusks can frequently be very dirty, discoloured with dust, but are never black.
The family’s appearance in silhouette is intended to avoid representation of any particular racial group, but they are nonetheless black in colour. They are styled after Bushman[1] paintings, but unlike Bushman art, where there is clear distinction between male and female figures, these are distinctly androgynous.
The ship is likewise black on one surface, although also in shades of grey, and the hammer also is grey. However, the cogwheel is coloured proper (in its natural colours), and has a brown or rusty appearance.
The crest of the Port Elizabeth City Council showed a sailing ship. The choice of a motor vessel can be seen as analagous to the University of Port Elizabeth’s use of stockless anchors instead of the stock anchors found in the Port Elizabeth arms.
The elephant, like the ship, is shown as being partially black and partially grey. The tusks are yellowish, but it is not clear whether they are intended to be gold in colour.
The metropole, like the Port Elizabeth Divisional Council (one of its predecessor authorities), incorporates an African elephant (Loxodonta africana) in its arms despite the fact that in the 20th and 21st centuries the only elephants in its vicinity have been in the Addo Elephant National Park, which falls outside its area of authority.
Port Elizabeth had an Indian elephant (Elephas maximus) in its arms, a borrowing from the arms of Sir Rufane Donkin.
The aloe is copied from a photograph, and shows the leaves and inflorescences naturally. However, the trunk is foreshortened.
This plant is a specimen of Aloe ferox, a plant which also can be found in the arms of Walmer and the Port Elizabeth Divisional Council (both now integrated into the metropole) as well as of the Eastern Cape Province.
The beadwork can be seen as representing a combination of African and Western elements, since the traditional beadwork of Bantu-speaking communities in Southern Africa has for the past two centuries adapted itself to the use of glass beads imported from Europe.
The “backbone” of beadwork and the barrulets (wavy lines) representing the rivers and the sea (Algoa Bay and the ocean west of Cape Recife)[2] can also be seen as a type of cross. A cross moline was the sole charge in the arms of Uitenhage.
The kierie and spear are also to be found in the arms of South Africa as adopted in 2000, occupying the same position in the composition.
The sun is different in appearance from the usual heraldic sun, being a red segment (roughly one-third) of a roundel, and the yellow rays emerge from an orange circle segment. The rays, too, are of unusual appearance.
The motto is in English, at the insistence of the executive mayor, but includes the isiNguni word ubuntu, which has no exact translation in Western languages. Its literal meaning refers to the state of being human. The root-word -ntu means “human”, and can be elaborated as describing a creature that stands upright and walks on two legs. But this “humanness” has a broader connotation, since ubuntu implies a system of obligation between people which is summed up in the saying “Umntu mgumuntu ngomntu” – “A person is human through another person.”
The metropolitan council resolved to use this set of symbols provisionally for five years while engaging in a process of reassessing it and its meaning.
The coat of arms appears also in the form of two different flags: a conventionally sized white flag, which flies at the City Hall and other municipal buildings, and a white vertical banner containing only the arms and motto. The conventional flag incorporates a light blue rectangular outline and the wording “Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Municipality”, also in light blue.
About the metropole:
The metropolitan municipality is a merger of the City of Port Elizabeth with its nearest neighbours, the towns of Uitenhage and Despatch.
The demarcation of 2000 worked on the principle of incorporating rural areas into urban munipalities, so it also incorporates areas which previously fell under the Western District Council. The WDC, having changed its name to Cacadu District Council, continues to function, but since district councils no longer operate in metropolitan areas, it has moved its headquarters from Port Elizabeth to Grahamstown (in the Makana Local Municipality).
The WDC areas incorporated into the metropole are the area of jurisdiction of the former Port Elizabeth Divisional Council (with the exclusion of Hankey, added to the PEDC in 1949, which is now part of the Kouga Local Municipality), and a large part of the area of the Uitenhage Divisional Council.
Following the elections of 2000, several local authorities proposed adopting the name of Nelson Rholihlahla Mandela,[3] President of South Africa from 1994 to ’99, but the Algoa Bay metropole succeeded in securing the name.
Included in the metro region is the Coega River estuary, just north of Motherwell, which in the past was known chiefly for its salt works. Late in 2002 work began on constructing a deepwater harbour at the river mouth, linked to the Coega Industrial Development Zone. The harbour is being built by the National Ports Authority, while the IDZ is under the control of the Coega Development Corporation.
