BEAUFORT WEST / BEAUFORT-WES
Province: Western Cape (until 1994, Cape Province/Cape Colony).
Division: Beaufort West.
Additions: –
Incorporated: 2000, into Beaufort West Local Municipality.
Arms first adopted through proclamation by the Administrator of the Cape, published in Cape Official Gazette No 3392, dated 10 March 1967. The Bureau of Heraldry issued a registration certificate (in Afrikaans) on 3 September 1969. The blazon reads:
Arms: Gules, a portcullis with chains pendant, all Or.
Crest: An ostrich statant proper.
Wreath and mantling: Or and gules.
Supporters: Dexter a merino ram and sinister an Angora ram, both proper.
Motto: FESTINA LENTE.
About the arms:
The shield bears (as a sole charge) a portcullis, taken from the crest of the Duke of Beaufort . See below for an explanation of the links with the duke’s family.
The crest is an ostrich (Struthio camelus), a bird which in the late 19th century rose to importance as a producer of feathers which fetched extremely high prices in London. Beaufort West was never as important a centre of the ostrich feather trade as Oudtshoorn or Port Elizabeth, but its farmers grew wealthy out of the trade, which has revived in the late 20th century.
Ostriches – that is, the Southern African race of the wild species, which also occurs in two other races, and as far north as North Africa and Arabia – are indigenous to the Karoo.
Although the female ostrich is grey (and usually quite dusty, making her appear drab), the male is easily identifiable with his glistening black body feathers and white tail and wing plumes (often coloured red-brown by dust).
The dexter supporter, a merino ram, represents the extremely lucrative wool trade, on which much of the prosperity of the district is based. The Karoo climate is well suited to wool sheep farming, and the succulent bushes the sheep graze on result in an identifiable flavour in the mutton also produced.
The merino industry in South Africa had its beginnings with a flock presented as a gift by Carlos IV, King of Spain, to Willem V, Prince of Orange and Stadtholder, and in turn sent to the Cape in the keeping of the prince’s close friend, Colonel Robert Jacob Gordon.[1] The original flock was returned to Spain, owing to a misunderstanding (the king was upset that his gift to Willem had been sent out of the Netherlands), but its offspring provided the basic bloodstock on which the woolled sheep industries of not only South Africa, but also Australia.
John Charles Molteno, later first Prime Minister of the Cape Colony, began farming with merinos in the Beaufort West district in 1836-41. The district is still a major wool producer.
The sinister supporter, an Angora goat, also represents an important agricultural industry, producing mohair for export.
The motto translates as “Hasten slowly.”
About the town: To avoid confusion with Port Beaufort (at the Breede River mouth; then newly established and intended to be a major port, but now only a holiday village) and Fort Beaufort (on the eastern frontier), the name was changed to Beaufort West, but the town is still called Beaufort by its inhabitants. The three Beauforts are just one example of the South African towns named in honour of Lord Charles’s family. After himself he named Somerset West and Somerset East (Somerset East was initially a farm privately owned by the Governor, known simply as Somerset); and after his brother (holding the courtesy title of Marquess of Worcester) the town of Worcester was named. The district of Beaufort West, formed out of the districts of Graaff-Reinet and Tulbagh, was proclaimed by Lord Charles on 27 November 1818. Its boundaries were extended northwards by extensions of the colony’s borders in 1824 (to the Sak River) and 1847 (to the Pramberg). A divisional council was established in 1856. Beaufort West had the distinction of becoming, on 3 February 1837, the first municipality in South Africa, under the ordinance of September 1836. A local bank was founded in 1854, and continued in business until 1864, when it was amalgamated with the Standard Bank of South Africa. A public library was established in 1861 and was reported in 1970 as having 20 000 books. The telegraph line reached the town in 1875, and the railway – the main line from Cape Town, then headed for Kimberley – in 1880. The line was electrified as far as Beaufort West in 1961, but the railway yards there remained a staging post for steam traction as far as Kimberley until the late 1970s (the line from there to the Witwatersrand having also been electrified). Steam locomotives are still to be seen on this line – known in its heyday as the Steam Race Track – but chiefly working steam enthusiasts’ special trains. Most trains heading north from Beaufort West are now diesel-hauled. The town has an airport that was fairly important until the 1960s, since it served as a refuelling point for propellor-driven aircraft The advent of jet aircraft made this halfway station unnecessary, and the airport is chiefly used by light aircraft. Beaufort West is the only town in South Africa that has pear trees for street trees – numbers of them were planted in the 1830s. Jacarandas also line some of the streets. The old town hall was proclaimed a historical monument in 1965. Following the local government elections of 2000, Beaufort West was constituted (including the rural area previously administered by the Beaufort West Divisional Council) as the Beaufort West Local Municipality, part of the Central Karoo District Municipality.
A village was established in 1818 on the farm Hooivlakte, the property of Commandant Abraham de Klerk, at the foot of the Nuweveld Mountains, and named in honour of the 5th Duke of Beaufort, father of the then Governor, Lord Charles Somerset.
