Last modified: 2002-10-12 by jarig bakker
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![[Cape Town flag]](../images/z/za-ctown.gif)
by Jorge Candeias, 11 Apr 2001
You have a flag of that ghastly squiggle logo that represents Table
Mountain. I saw two examples of different squiggles (both representing
the mountain) when I was down in Cape Town c. 2 years ago. I saw neither
on a flag - both were on hoardings. One of the two logos was for the Greater
Cape Town Metropolitan Council (covering the entire Cape Peninsula except
for the nature reserve at the southern tip, the Cape Flats, Somerset West,
Strand, Gordon's Bay, the Tygerberg area and the areas on the north shore
of Table Bay) and the other for the Cape Town Municipality (a sub-metropolitan
regional council covering the so-called City Bowl, the southern suburbs
near the mountain down as far as Wynberg, and the Atlantic seaboard, I
think including Hout Bay).
I can't recall which logo was which - the drawbacks of trendy design!
But my reason for writing is that in the 1960s, '70s and '80s there
was a navy blue or royal blue flag bearing the arms of Cape Town: a gold
shield bearing an anchor, with a red inescutcheon bearing three annulets.
I couldn't quote you the dimensions off-hand, but it was regularly flown
at municipal congresses. The CoA can be found on Ralf
Hartemink's site.
Mike Oettle, 18 Dec 2001
Mike Oettle is correct. The old flag of the City of Cape Town
had a blue field in the centre of which was the municipal arms.
The shield of the municipal arms was originally granted as part of
a seal by the then Commissioner-General in June 1804 under authority from
the Batavian Government. It was only in February 1899 that the full
arms were granted under Letters Patent from the College of Arms in London
following the addition of a crest, mantling and supporters. These
were registered,
unchanged, by the South African Bureau of Heraldry on 16 January 1972
and are described as follows:
ARMS: Or, an anchor erect Sable, stock proper, from the ring a riband
flowing Azure and suspended therefrom am escutcheon Gules charged with
three annulets Or
CREST: On the battlements of a tower proper, a trident in bend Or,
surmounted by an anchor and cable in bend sinister, Sable
WREATH AND MANTLING: Or and Sable
SUPPORTERS: On a compartment below the shield consisting of rocky mounds,
dexter, a female figure proper vested Argent, mantle and sandals Azure,
on her head an estoile irradiated Or, supporting with her dexter hand an
anchor proper; sinister, a lion rampant guardant Gules
MOTTO: SPES BONA (Good Hope).
It was some years after the granting of the arms by the College of Arms that the City Council also adopted a municipal flag that had a blue field with the original arms (seal), as granted by Commissioner-General De Mist, in the centre. (There is an illustration of this flag in Lions and Virgins by Dr. C Pama). This flag was used until a new flag was adopted by the new Cape Town Metropolitan Council following the re-organisation of local government in South Africa in 1997. With the introduction of the new flag, Cape Town is unique in South Africa in that no new arms have yet been adopted although those described above are no longer used.
The new flag for the Cape Metropolitan Council was adopted in 1996. This flag was designed by a graphic artist and has the Council emblem in the centre of a white field. The emblem is in the form of a stylised table mountain with an outline of a map of the Cape Metro area below. The colours of the badge blend from dark green, lighter green, white through to purple and green. Six purple horizontal lines bisect the lower half of the badge. This flag has not been registered with the Bureau of Heraldry.
The City of Cape Town has also adopted a new flag to replace that described
earlier. The new flag has a stylised image of Table Mountain in white
on a background of blue in the top left half and green on the top right
hand corners. Below the Table Mountain image is a yellow "paint brush"
horizontal stripe under which is a red stripe at the bottom of the flag.
Like the flag of the Cape Metropolitan Council, the flag was designed by
a graphic artist. Uniquely in Southern Africa, the flag is
the now main symbol used by the municipality since no new arms for the
city have yet been adopted. Like the flag of the Cape Town
Metropolitan Council, this flag has also not been registered with the
Bureau of Heraldry.
Bruce Berry, 20 Dec 2001
![[Old Cape Town banner]](../images/z/za_ctold.jpg)
image sent by Mike Oettle, 7 Oct 2002
Going through some old papers I came across a clipping from the front
page of The Argus Cape Town, dated 24 April 1975. The attached image reduces
the colour photograph to something like a 17th-century Dutch painting,
I think, but the essential flag
elements – the main banner and the trumpet and drum banners – can be
made out clearly. (Were drum banners used in former
times? It seems out of place.)
The caption reads:
WITH THE AUTUMNAL SUN glinting on the City Hall portals, four men in
colourful period costume set off on a
march through the city's streets carrying the Cape Town Festival armorial
bearings. This daily Festival ritual starts
at 9 am. Helmut Otto (standard bearer), Peter Hamblin (drummer), Rainie
Strydom (trumpeter on left) and Graham
Coote (trumpeter) descend the City Hall steps.
The banner was specially devised for the festival of that year and was
also hung from street poles. It takes the lion supporter
from the city arms and makes it a banner bearer within the banner;
the small banner being the contents of the shield in the arms
granted to the city in 1899 by the College of Arms. (See http://uk.geocitie
s.com/armoria/muni/CapeTown.html)
I don't yet have an image of the flag used by Cape Town in that period,
but it was principally blue, and if I recall correctly it had
a shield of the arms offset to the hoist. The blue in the city flag
was darker than the blue this banner, though.
The lion's tongue is a much paler blue, and the claws, which in the
armorial achievement should also be blue, are shown as
white, no doubt because of the blue background behind the red lion,
a clear breach of the colour rule.
The edging is in black and yellow – the black taken from the colour
of the anchor. The anchor was the common feature (as a
single supporter) in the civic arms granted in 1804 by Commissioner-General
Jacob Abraham Uitenhage de Mist (see http://uk.g
eocities.com/armoria/DCs/dist_auth.html#anchor. ).
This should provide a bit of colour representing Cape Town, at any rate.
Mike Oettle, 7 Oct 2002
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