D

DANCETTY THE PEAKS EMBATTLED (Afr: HOEKIG DIE PIEKE GEKANTEEL)
This modified line*, introduced in 1986, is often used to suggest a range of flat-topped koppies (hills), and is found in several municipal arms, and a few personal ones, e.g. those of Willem van Wyk (BoH 1992).

DEFENCE FORCE
The SA National Defence Force, consisting of the SA Army*, SA Air Force*, SA Navy*, and SA Military Health Service*, is undoubtedly the most armigerous organisation in SA. It has its own heraldry department, which devises cap-badges, unit arms, flags, and other insignia, most of which are registered at the BoH. More than 1000 items were registered between 1963 and 2000. They are protected not only under the Heraldry Act* but under the Defence Act too.

DEPARTMENT OF ARTS & CULTURE
This department has had ministerial responsibility for the National Archives & Records Service, which includes the Bureau of Heraldry*, since 2002.

DEPARTMENT OF ARTS, CULTURE, SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
This department had ministerial responsibility for the National Archives & Records Service, including the Bureau of Heraldry*, from 1994 to 2002.

DEPARTMENT OF CULTURAL AFFAIRS
This short-lived government department had ministerial responsibility for the State Archives, including the Bureau of Heraldry*, from 1968 to 1970.

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION, ARTS & SCIENCES
This department had ministerial responsibility for heraldry, and the State Archives Services, which included the Bureau of Heraldry*, from 1959 to 1968.

DEPARTMENT OF NATIONAL EDUCATION
This department had ministerial responsibility for the State Archives, including the Bureau of Heraldry*, from 1970 to 1994.

DIAMOND (Afr: DIAMANT)
Appears, usually in cut and facetted form, as a charge in some personal arms (including those of successive Roman Catholic Bishops of Kimberley for many years), and in municipal, military and institutional arms in diamond-mining regions, e.g. the former Rayton Town Council (BoH 1990).

DIE STAMP — see Gold Stamp

DIFFERENCING (Afr: DIFFERENSIËRING)
Personal arms can be differenced to identify individual descendants of the original armiger, but this is not compulsory in SA. Any method can be used, e.g. the English system of adding marks of cadency for sons, the Scottish system of adding bordures and varying lines, the Canadian system of marks of cadency for daughters, or Continental methods such as changing tinctures and/or lines, and adding, removing, or substituting charges.

Impersonal arms can also be differenced to show relationships between organisations. The army*, air force*, navy*, and military health service* assign basic designs of arms to various categories of units, and then difference them systematically by adding units' numbers, or other charges. The departments in the former House of Assembly* bore similar arms differenced by substituting charges.

DISA
The floral emblem* of the Western Cape appears as a charge in many arms, such as those of the Garden Cities Trust (BoH 1973). Its "proper" colour is red; if blazoned as "slipped and leaved" (which it seldom is), the stalk and leaves are green. The Western Cape's provincial honour, the Order of the Disa, is named after it.

DISTRICT MUNICIPALITIES
About a quarter of the 47 district municipalities created in the 2000 local government* reorganisation have registered arms thus far, e.g. the Ehlanzeni District Municipality (BoH 2002). Many employ African shields* and, like their predecessors, the regional services councils*, they have birds* as supporters. However, there is no specific pattern of mural crown* for them, and all three of the new varieties - rustic, palisaded, and rustic with wooden palisades - have been used.

DIVISIONAL COUNCILS
About three dozen of these rural local authorities in the Cape Province registered arms between 1963 and 1986. Arms often alluded to local agriculture and environment, e.g. the grapes and heron in the arms of the Divisional Council of the Cape (1968). The divisional councils were superseded by regional services councils* in the 1980s.

DUTCH REFORMED CHURCH
Dutch Reformed Church heraldry consists of synodal and congregational seals - which are pictorial rather than armorial - and a few congregational arms. A few have been registered at the BoH, e.g. the seal of the General Synod (BoH 1968).

ECCLESIASTICAL HERALDRY
Many churches in SA are armigerous. The Anglican Church* and Roman Catholic Church* use diocesan and a few parish arms, while the Dutch Reformed Church* has synodal and congregational seals and a few congregational arms.

Others, such as the Congregational Church, the Ethiopian Episcopal Church*, and the Presbyterian Church, have arms for the church as a whole but not for individual divisions or congregations.

EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS
Hundreds of educational institutions - universities*, technikons, colleges, and schools* - are armigerous. Example: the arms of the University of Cape Town (1859, CoA 1919, BoH 1992), which are the oldest SA academic arms still in use.

Books, lamps, and flaming torches were popular (and clichéd) symbols of education, but have been superseded by the key*, trefoil*, and triquetra*. The BoH has devised basic formats for the arms of technical colleges*, technikons*, and special schools*.

ELEPHANT
This animal* (or its head) appears as a charge and sometimes as a supporter in many arms, e.g. those of the former Venda homeland (BoH 1979). Two tusks flank the shield of the national arms* in place of supporters.

EMBATTLED POINTED (Afr: PUNTIG GEKANTEEL)
The effect of this modified line*, introduced in 1983, is halfway between embattled and urdy. It has been used in a few municipal arms, e.g. Ramsgate (BoH 1990), where it presumably represents the "gate."

ETHIOPIAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH
This church, an offshoot of the Anglican Church*, was previously called the Order of Ethiopia ("Ethiopian" being a Victorian term for Africans in general). Its arms and seal (BoH 1995) depict an African mother and child, and a dove of peace.

FAMILY ARMS
Confusingly, the term "family arms" is used in SA, and in the Heraldry Act*, to mean the arms of individuals. As in many other countries, arms are borne by individuals in their own right, and not by families collectively.

Around 800 personal arms have been registered* or matriculated* at the BoH since 1963, but there are probably as many - if not more - unregistered (but perfectly legal) arms in use. Some are historical, and have been passed down through the generations, while others are new. While everyone has the right to bear arms, it appears that the vast majority of armigers are people of European origin, and only a handful of African and Indian South Africans have registered arms.

Personal arms usually consist of a shield, crest*, and motto*. Supporters* are rare.

FAMILY ASSOCIATIONS (Afr: FAMILIEBONDE)
Since 1966, the standard pattern for the arms of family associations has been the family arms (old or new, as the case may be) with a plain chief, e.g. the Viljoen Festival Committee (BoH 1974). Individual members can wear the arms on blazer pockets, brooches etc, and can difference* the chief to create registrable personal arms. Although about 40 associations have registered arms, only a few people have registered personal arms derived from them.

FINNISH INFLUENCE
Although South Africa has no historical links with Finland, the Bureau of Heraldry adopted the Finnish armorial style in the 1970s because it best suited South Africa's needs. There is a strong emphasis on simplicity of design, and on innovation. The Bureau has also adopted some distinctively Finnish elements, such as the firtwig* and firtree* lines of partition.

FIR-TREE-TOPPED (Afr: DENNEBOOMVORMIG)
A Finnish line*, introduced into SA in 1978 and initially blazoned as "spruce-sectioned". It appears in a number of arms, and is sometimes used to represent forest landscapes. The first appearance was in the arms of Wierda Park Junior School (BoH 1978).

FIR-TWIGGED (Afr: DENNETWYGVORMIG)
Another Finnish line*, introduced into SA in the arms of Rowland Bailey (BoH 1984). The stylised fir-twig is sometimes also used to embellish charges, e.g. a key. A fir-twig coronet* and a fir-twigged cross* have also been designed.

FIR-TWIGGED CROSS (Afr: DENNETWYGVORMIGE KRUIS)
An original SA cross*, introduced in 1989. It consists of four stylised fir-twigs*, but in its Latin form only the three upper limbs are fir-twigged and the lower is plain, as in the arms of George Murfin (BoH 1989).

FISH AND SEALIFE
Fish and other forms of sealife appear in many arms. In addition to the generic fish and seashells found in British and European heraldry there are a number of local species, including: the Cape lobster (kreef), the coelacanth, the crab, the kabeljou, the pansy shell, the rainbow trout, the salmon, the shark, the snoek, and the swordfish.

FLAMES (Afr: VLAMME)
Flames appear in many arms, especially those of schools. Often they are depicted issuing from torches or lamps, but sometimes they are depicted on their own, in which case they may be blazoned as "a lowe of flame", e.g. in the arms of Khayalethu Special School (BoH 1992).

FLOWERS AND PLANTS
In addition to the rose and other armorial flowers found in British and European arms, SA heraldry uses many indigenous species as charges, including: the aloe*, the arum lily*, the Barberton daisy*, the bulrush (palmiet), the coral-tree flower, the disa*, the gousblom (marigold), the hibiscus, the lotus*, the Orange River lily*, the protea*, the strelitzia*, the sunflower, and wild flowers. Sometimes the botanical name is included in the blazon.

FOREIGN ARMIGERS
The BoH registers personal and impersonal arms from anywhere in the world, and many foreign citizens have registered their arms over the years. The concept of a "foreign country" now includes cyberspace, for the Bureau has registered the arms of the (International) Association of Amateur Heralds (BoH 2002), which exists only on the internet.

Foriegn armigers who have registered at the BoH include Portuguese and Italian nobles, Irish and Scottish feudal barons, and high-ranking knights of various independent orders of chivalry. There was something of a boom in the late 1990s and early 2000s, and in 2002 the BoH placed a moratorium on the registration of coronets and other additaments of rank because of the difficulty of authenticating them.

FREEMASONS
SA district and provincial lodges of the English, Scottish and Irish constitutions bear the arms of their parent organisations in those countries, sometimes with differencing. The only wholly SA lodge is the Grand Lodge of SA, formed when the Netherlandic lodges broke away from the parent body in 1961. Its arms (BoH 1973) depict traditional symbols: compasses, a square, and the sun.

FRUIT AND CROPS
Fruit and agricultural produce appear as charges in many arms, especially those of local authorities in farming districts. They include: apples, grapes*, maize (mealies), millet, oranges, sorghum, tobacco, and wheat* (in garbs or individual ears).