South African Coat of Arms

   During my first ride through Durban, I noticed that this same coat of arms (above) appeared on many of the buildings. Pictured are two animals: the springbok and oryx. Written below the shield is "Ex Unitate Vires" which essentially in Latin means "Strength from Unity." After doing a bit of research, I discovered that this is the old South African coat of arms, recently it has been replaced with a much less medieval-looking crest (right) that replaces the Latin motto with a phrase in one of the Bantu languages. The original crest contains imagery that represents the four original areas of South Africa;the maiden represents the Cape of Good Hope, the wildebeest represents Natal, the orange tree represents the Orange River Colony, and wagon represents Transvaal.
   I have also seen several other crests with Latin phrases including: "E Caelo Scientia," "Agricultura," and "Corde ac Manu." I wouldn't want to deprive Mr. Day, Danny, or the Dream Team from translating these phrases, so I won't be provided the translations of those.