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Germiston (South Africa)

Gauteng Province

image by Martin Grieve, 22 July 2005

Germiston

See also:

Germiston (1965/66 - 1994)

Germiston is part of the Witwatersrand conurbation and is located east of Johannesburg (East Rand). It is South Africa's sixth largest city with 70% of the western world's gold passing through its gold refinery and it has South Africa's largest railway junction.

The municipal flag came into use during 1965/66 and is composed of two stripes, white and red. The red shield from the municipal arms is found, somewhat unusually, on the top right corner of the white stripe and comprises two ox-wagons separated by two yellow diagonal lines symbolising the importance of the town as a railway junction. Three gold medallions lie between the lines and at the bottom of the flag on the red stripe and are symbolic of the gold-mining industry, to which the town owes its origins.

scan by Bruce Berry, 01 Sept 2005

The blazon of the arms granted to Germiston by Letters Patent in 1935 and registered by the South African Bureau of Heraldry on 20 February 1968 is as follows:
ARMS: Gules, within two bandlets Or between two ox wagons Argent, three bezants
CREST: A falcon affronte rising, wings expanded
WREATH AND MANTLING: Or and Gules
SUPPORTERS: Two eland proper resting the interior hoof on an heraldic fountain
MOTTO: SALUS POPULI SUPREMA LEX (The welfare of the people is the supreme law).

With the re-organisation of South African local government in December 1994 and again in December 2000, Germiston is no longer a separate municipality and now falls under the jurisdiction of the Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Council. Consequently the original municipal flag is no longer flown.
Bruce Berry, 01 Sept 2006