In a coat of arms most of the design is contained within the shield. In this design the shield is a small part of the whole. Around the outer edge of the shield is an outline; it is unclear whether this is intended to be a demi-border, or is merely an artistic convenience to mark the edge of the shield.

The two figures on the shield are taken from a Bushman rock painting known as the Linton stone, now housed in the South African Museum in Cape Town.

The official description of them reads: “The Khoisan, the oldest known inhabitants of our land, testify to our common humanity and heritage as South Africans. The figures are depicted in an attitude of greeting, symbolising unity. This also represents the beginning of the individual’s transformation into the greater sense of belonging to the nation and by extention, [sic] common Humanity.”

The colouring of the two men is intended to be red ochre (as stated in in the blazon), but in many versions appears rather dark and suggests a stronger connection than actually exists between the Bushman ethnic group and the Nguni and Sotho, which are Bantu-speaking communities of Negro origin.

The spear is not specified as to type, and can represent any type between the long throwing spear of the early Nguni and the short stabbing assegai of the Zulu kingdom. The knobkierie and spear together symbolise defence and authority, and since they lie at a flat angle, they symbolise peace. They are also mentioned in the official description as representing “the powerful legs of the secretary bird”, which seems a little remote, to say the least.

On either side of the shield is a wheat ear, grossly out of proportion to the rest of the elements. The official description reads: “An emblem of fertility, it also symbolises the idea of germination, growth and the feasible development of any potential. It relates to the nourishment of the people and signifies the agricultural aspects of the earth.”

The colour of the wheat is specified as brown (Brunatré), which is rare as a heraldic colour.

The use of wheat in this position is derived directly from the socialist state symbols of China, the former Soviet Union and the socialist states of Eastern Europe, where wheat, rice or some other grain crop was invariably used with just the symbolism mentioned above. When seen in the context of other symbols of this type it becomes clear that this is an unthinking addition to the composition, as well as a compliment to a political system that has elsewhere proved itself unworkable.

On the outside of the wheat ears is a pair of elephant tusks on each side (four in all), of which the official description states: “Elephants symbolise wisdom, strength, moderation and eternity.”

The tusks naturally represent the world’s largest land mammal, Loxodonta africana, which is currently found in nature in the game reserves of the northern and eastern parts of the country, as well as a remnant population in the Knysna Forest and a thriving herd at Addo, near Port Elizabeth, but were once found as far west as the Cape Peninsula. Several South African rivers are named Olifants (elephant’s), including two in the Western Cape Province. The African elephant belongs to a different genus from the only other surviving elephant species, the Indian elephant (Elephas maximas). A third species, the Syrian elephant, was known in classical times, and was used in warfare by the Roman Empire and its enemies. Elephants are traditionally symbols of power and authority, especially in African cultures. They can be seen in the arms of KwaZulu, Venda and Swaziland.

The tusks are not in ivory colour, but appear in two different shades of gold, distinct from the gold of the shield and in contrast to the brown of the wheat (which in other emblems, whether heraldic or socialist, is usually shown as being gold). Although the gold shades used here can be likened to the dusty patina often seen on unpolished ivory, they are in fact darker and more uniform than this patina.

The use of different shades of gold is in conflict with heraldic practice, which acknowledges only one gold colour, although on different coats of arms (or in different renditions of the same arms) it might appear quite different from one shield to the next. Usually yellow ink or paint, or gold dust or gold leaf, would be used.

Motto:

The motto, shown on a green ribbon linking the bases of the tusks, reads: !Ke e: /Xarra //Ke.

Taken from the language of the now extinct /Xam or /Kham Bushman people, it translates as: “People who are different come together” or “Diverse people unite.”

The official description reads: “It addresses each individual effort to harness the unity between thought and action. On a collective scale it calls for the nation to unite in a common sense of belonging and national pride – Unity in Diversity.”
The /Xam language is the only Bushman language recorded as having been spoken south of the Orange or Gariep River, and therefore represents the earliest known human inhabitants of the region from which sprang the modern South African state.

The motto is almost impossible to pronounce for anyone not familiar with the click sounds of Nguni and South Sotho, which in turn are derived from the languages of the Bushmen.

This means that the motto is extremely difficult not only for foreigners and for South Africans whose language is English or Afrikaans, but also for Tswana-, North Sotho-, Tsonga- and Venda-speakers, and for members of those Swazi clans which are of Sotho origin.

The most easily pronounced click sound is /, which in Sotho and Nguni is spelt C and is close to the sound made by English-speakers that is written as “tsk-tsk”. For this sound the tongue is drawn back from the gums just behind the front teeth.

The sound represented by ! is made with the tongue initially on the front of the palate, and is spelt Q in Sotho and Nguni.
The // sound (X in Nguni and Sotho) is made with the tongue on the side of the palate, just above the molars (on either side of the mouth).

There are also other click sounds not used in Bantu languages, some of which have special characters in the International Phonetic Alphabet. The colon in the second word is one of those sounds not found in the IPA.

The letter X (in the third word) represents the sound spelt as KH in transliterations of Russian or Arabic, as G in Afrikaans, Dutch and the Sotho languages, and in Xhosa as RH. It is also sometimes spelt in a Bushman context with the letters KH.

Using the spelling of Nguni languages, the motto can be written as: Qê ê crharra xê.

With kind permission from Mike Oettle: Armoria – Heraldry in South Africa