Visiting Boksburg South Africa? Learn more about the suburban area of Boksburg South Africa in eastern Johannesburg…
Boksburg, South Africa lies in eastern Johannesburg and is part of the East Rand also called the Witwatersrand. In December 2000 this suburban area was amalgamated under the Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality. The town was established in the year 1887, mainly to provide a residential area and services to the gold mines located in close proximity to this area. The name of the town of Boksburg was kept to honor the State Secretary of the South African Republic who served during 1881 and 1889, Mr W E Eduard Bok.
There are different municipal flags in South Africa following a similar pattern. The flag of Boksburg is designed to replicate the municipal arms. As is commonly a procedure, the flag has been registered with the Bureau of Heraldry on April 3rd, 1981.
Description of the Flag
It has a red border surrounding a yellow field, while a blue griffin is found right in the center of the yellow field. The design is finished off with a red tulip in each corner of the flag.
The blue griffin is apparently part of the coat of arms of the Bok family, which originates from the Netherlands. For that reason the red tulips have also been incorporated into the flag of Boksburg South Africa to commemorate the heraldry of the Bok family.
However, the late Dr. Cor Pama and a Mr. S. Piennar normally authenticated South African municipality flags and their attendant heraldry. Both these gentlemen were experts in the heraldry of the municipality flag in South Africa and neither were able to confirm these details.
The heraldry on the municipality flag for Boksburg is described as a blue griffin sergeant coward, which is armed and languid red. The red tulip is located in each corner of the yellow background and is bordered in red.
In fact, the family arms were adopted by the suburban town of Boksburg in 1960 and were subsequently registered and recorded at the South African Bureau of Heraldry much later in April 1981. The arms are described as the blue griffin sergeant coward in Azure, langue Gules and armed.
The crest is defined as the Azure demi-griffin issuant armed and langue Gules, while it would hold a tulip slip. The wreath and mantling are Azure in color while the motto that comes right at the end reads: RESPICE FINEM.
In fact, Boksburg is on record as one of the first municipalities that both introduced and adopted the new flag and subsequently a new coat of arms. This happened in the transitional period between 1994 and 2000. Even though the symbols were short lived they were registered at the South Africa Bureau of Heraldry in February 2000.
The new flag was also an armorial flag following the previous one but it incorporated the new arms, which had three horizontal stripes. The top half was green while the bottom half was split into yellow and blue. Right in the center of the yellow stripe was a wavy blue strip.
The proportion of the rectangle flag is 2:3, which incorporates the horizontal stripes, the top green, the bottom yellow and the blue, which are equally divided. In fact, an interesting design element is the mine dumps of the lines embattled between the yellow and blue with a blue colored wave in the yellow band. The new motto is now ‘The City of Endless Opportunity’.
