Under
South African law, everyone has the right to bear a
coat of arms as he pleases, as long as he does not infringe on the rights of others (i.e. the arms are not too similar to arms already in use by someone else) and the proposed arms conform to basic heraldic principles. The State Herald approves of and registers arms under the authority given by the Heraldry Act. In addition to registering coats of arms, badges, and other heraldic devices, the Bureau maintains records of names, uniforms, and badges—including some corporate arms—that were previously registered by the Department of the Interior (1935–1959) and the Department of Education, Arts and Sciences (1959–1963). Anyone, regardless of nationality or place of residence, may apply to register arms with the Bureau, which since 1980 has also been authorised to register the arms of official bodies in foreign countries. Originally, applications required approval from the Heraldry Council before registration could proceed. In 1969, this authority was delegated to the State Herald, although he retained the option of referring applications to the council—or, from 1980 onward, to its Heraldry Committee—when necessary. In 1980, the National Herald was further empowered to remove arms from the register, either at the request of the applicant or, in the case of official, municipal, or corporate arms, when the relevant organisation had ceased to exist. Appeals against the National Herald's decisions can be made to the
Heraldry Committee. In the 1970s, the Bureau registered between 60 and 90 arms and badges per year. The number increased sharply in the mid-1980s, reaching a peak of 148 in the 1987–88 reporting year. It declined in the early 1990s, and returned to 1970s levels. (These figures do not include the registrations of defence force unit arms and insignia, of which the Bureau has registered more than 1000 since the 1960s.) The illustrated
blazons (written descriptions in technical terms) of applications for registration are published in the South African
Government Gazette. Blazons (but not illustrations) of arms registered at the Bureau and its predecessors up to the end of the year 2000 are available online through the National Archives website. Naturally, the Bureau itself has a coat of arms which were adopted in 1965. The blazon is
Azure, three escutcheons Or, on a chief of the second the South African lion. In layman's language this means that the shield is blue, it displays three smaller golden shields, and across the top is a gold horizontal strip displaying the red lion that formed the crest of the old South African national coat of arms. The Bureau arms are depicted on the seal on each registration certificate and, in the 1960s and early 1970s, they were depicted in full colour at the head of the certificate too. ==National Herald and staff ==