The National Monuments Council (NMC) was the national heritage conservation authority of

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring coun ...

, and therefore also of

Namibia Namibia (, ), officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country in Southern Africa. Its western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Zambia and Angola to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and ea ...

, during the major part of the

apartheid Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...

era. It was the successor body to the Historical Monuments Commission and became known principally for its declaration of several thousand national monuments. It came into being through the promulgation of the National Monuments Act of 1969 and ceased to exist on 31 March 2000 when it was replaced by SAHRA and the provincial heritage resources authorities established in terms of the National Heritage Resources Act of 1999.

History

The National Monuments Council was the successor to the Historical Monuments Commission which had been in existence since 1923 and upon its creation the 'historical monuments' declared by the Commission became known as 'national monuments'. Like its predecessor it was a statutory body, semi-independent of government and presided over by a council appointed by the Minister responsible for culture. It had its head office in

Cape Town Cape Town ( af, Kaapstad; , xh, iKapa) is one of South Africa's three capital cities, serving as the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. It is the legislative capital of the country, the oldest city in the country, and the second largest ...

rather than the national capital

Pretoria Pretoria () is South Africa's administrative capital, serving as the seat of the executive branch of government, and as the host to all foreign embassies to South Africa. Pretoria straddles the Apies River and extends eastward into the foothi ...

. This reflected its preoccupation with the heritage of the early colonial (Dutch) period, the area around Cape Town being the most densely colonised during that time and hence the area in which most remnants of Dutch colonialism in South Africa are located. This is borne out by the fact that around half of the national monuments declared by the NMC were located in what is now the

Western Cape The Western Cape is a province of South Africa, situated on the south-western coast of the country. It is the fourth largest of the nine provinces with an area of , and the third most populous, with an estimated 7 million inhabitants in 202 ...

Province.

The Apartheid Era

Most of the period of existence the NMC fell within the

era. During this period the organisation was governed by a Council made up exclusively of

white South African White South Africans generally refers to South Africans of European descent. In linguistic, cultural, and historical terms, they are generally divided into the Afrikaans-speaking descendants of the Dutch East India Company's original settler ...

s and had a professional staff of similar composition. However, from not long after PW Botha's introduction of the Tricameral Parliament in 1984 the membership of the Council included one representative from each of the

Coloured Coloureds ( af, Kleurlinge or , ) refers to members of multiracial ethnic communities in Southern Africa who may have ancestry from more than one of the various populations inhabiting the region, including African, European, and Asian. South ...

and

Indian Indian or Indians may refer to: Peoples South Asia * Indian people, people of Indian nationality, or people who have an Indian ancestor ** Non-resident Indian, a citizen of India who has temporarily emigrated to another country * South Asia ...

communities. During the de Klerk era (1989–1994) the organisation began to shift focus and declared a number of sites important to the history of the African community, including those associated with anti-apartheid movements, commencing with the declaration of the Sol Plaatje House in Kimberley in 1992.

Post-Apartheid

From 1994, under the post-Apartheid government, the make-up and focus of the organisation began to change to reflect the changes in South African society. During this period the composition of the council and professional staff came to reflect the demographics of the country and a concerted effort was made to declare sites that reflected a broader national heritage. At the end of March 2000 the National Monuments Council was replaced by the

South African Heritage Resources Agency The South African Heritage Resources Agency (SAHRA) is the national administrative body responsible for the protection of South Africa's cultural heritage. It was established through the ''National Heritage Resources Act, number 25 of 1999'' and ...

, SAHRA, and over the following years the establishment of provincial heritage resources authorities saw the shift of the majority of its functions to provincial level. In terms of Section 58 of the National Heritage Resources Act national monuments became the responsibility of provincial heritage resources authorities and are now known as provincial heritage sites. A new category of

national heritage site A national heritage site is a heritage site having a value that has been registered by a governmental agency as being of national importance to the cultural heritage or history of that country. Usually such sites are listed in a heritage registe ...

was created and is the responsibility of SAHRA.

Independence of Namibia

In 1990, when the territory of South West Africa became Namibia, the National Monuments Act remained in force and a National Monuments Council was established for the newly independent country. This organisation continued to operate until the promulgation of the Namibian Heritage Act of 2004 in terms of which the National Heritage Council was established.

Legacy

The most noticeable legacy of the National Monuments Council is the bronze badge which still adorns most provincial heritage sites in South Africa and heritage places in Namibia. The term 'national monument' is still used by most South Africans and Namibians to refer to anything protected in terms of heritage legislation. Gedenkplaket, Nasionale Gedenkwaardigheid

Gedenkplaket, Nasionale Gedenkwaardigheid

More fundamental inheritances of present heritage resources authorities are: * The lists of provincial heritage sites and heritage places is heavily biased towards colonial heritage and the built environment. * There is a lack of integration of heritage management into the planning systems of local government, a legacy of the lack of relevant provisions in the National Monuments Act. * A lack of understanding of the importance and relevance of heritage conservation amongst the majority of South Africans and Namibians stemming from the focus of the NMC being for most of its existence mainly on heritage relevant to the white community.

Logo

The logo of the National Monuments Council was almost the same as that used by its predecessor, the Historical Monuments Commission. It depicts the entrance gate of the Cape Town Castle (the first historical monument to be declared by the commission) surrounded by a wreath of King Proteas (South Africa's national flower) and capped with the national coat of arms that was used between 1910 and 2000. The only change from the Historical Monuments Commission period is the inclusion of a

padrão A ''padrão'' is a stone pillar left by Portuguese maritime explorers in the 15th and 16th centuries to record significant landfalls and thereby establish primacy and possession. They were often placed on promontories and capes or at the mouths o ...

in the centre of the castle gateway, a symbol of the Portuguese 'discovery' of Africa and apparently symbolic of the inclusion of

South West Africa South West Africa ( af, Suidwes-Afrika; german: Südwestafrika; nl, Zuidwest-Afrika) was a territory under South African administration from 1915 to 1990, after which it became modern-day Namibia. It bordered Angola (Portuguese colony before 1 ...

(now

) within the area of jurisdiction of the organisation.

Offices

The Head Office of the National Monuments Council was in Cape Town and for most of its existence was the only base from which the organisation operated. From the mid-1980s 'regional offices' were established. The first was in

to service the then Transvaal province and thereafter in the other two provinces of the time, the Orange Free State (

Bloemfontein Bloemfontein, ( ; , "fountain of flowers") also known as Bloem, is one of South Africa's three capital cities and the capital of the Free State province. It serves as the country's judicial capital, along with legislative capital Cape To ...

) and Natal (initially

Durban Durban ( ) ( zu, eThekwini, from meaning 'the port' also called zu, eZibubulungwini for the mountain range that terminates in the area), nicknamed ''Durbs'',Ishani ChettyCity nicknames in SA and across the worldArticle on ''news24.com'' from ...

, but later

Pietermaritzburg Pietermaritzburg (; Zulu: umGungundlovu) is the capital and second-largest city in the province of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. It was founded in 1838 and is currently governed by the Msunduzi Local Municipality. Its Zulu name umGungundlovu ...

) provinces. The Cape Province came to be served by regional offices in

(Western Cape), Kimberley (Northern Cape) and

Grahamstown Makhanda, also known as Grahamstown, is a town of about 140,000 people in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. It is situated about northeast of Port Elizabeth and southwest of East London. Makhanda is the largest town in the Makana ...

(Eastern Cape). An office was also established in

Windhoek Windhoek (, , ) is the capital and largest city of Namibia. It is located in central Namibia in the Khomas Highland plateau area, at around above sea level, almost exactly at the country's geographical centre. The population of Windhoek in 202 ...

, the capital of the South African governed territory of

. Following the establishment of nine provinces in 1994 the boundaries of the regions served were brought into line with those of provinces and over the next few years what were now called 'provincial offices' were established in those provinces that did not yet have an office. With the coming into effect of the National Heritage Resources Act in 1999, the records and in some cases staff of these offices were taken over by provincial heritage resources authorities.

Funding

The National Monuments Council received the bulk of its funds as a transfer payment from the department of the Minister responsible for culture. For most of its history this was the Department of National Education, but after 1994 the Department of Arts, Culture Science and Technology. The organisation also administered a number of trust funds established for the care of particular sites or types of heritage and derived income from properties which it owned, most notably Dal Josaphat near

Paarl Paarl (; Afrikaans: ; derived from ''Parel'', meaning "pearl" in Dutch) is a town with 112,045 inhabitants in the Western Cape province of South Africa. It is the third-oldest city and European settlement in the Republic of South Africa (after ...

in the Western Cape.

Successor organisations

The following organisations are successors to the National Monuments Council: *

Amafa aKwaZulu-Natali Amafa aKwaZulu-Natali (Zulu for 'Heritage KwaZulu-Natal'), commonly known as 'Amafa', is a provincial heritage resources authority in terms of South Africa's National Heritage Resources Act. It was established in 1997 in terms of the KwaZulu ...

(

KwaZulu-Natal KwaZulu-Natal (, also referred to as KZN and known as "the garden province") is a province of South Africa that was created in 1994 when the Zulu bantustan of KwaZulu ("Place of the Zulu" in Zulu) and Natal Province were merged. It is loca ...

Province) * Eastern Cape Provincial Heritage Resources Authority (

Eastern Cape The Eastern Cape is one of the provinces of South Africa. Its capital is Bhisho, but its two largest cities are East London and Gqeberha. The second largest province in the country (at 168,966 km2) after Northern Cape, it was formed in ...

Province) * Heritage Free State ( Free State Province) *

Heritage Western Cape Heritage Western Cape (HWC) is a provincial heritage resources authority established by the Minister of Cultural Affairs and Sport of the government of the Western Cape province in South Africa. It is a public entity set up under the terms of ...

(

Province) * Limpopo Provincial Heritage Resources Authority (

Limpopo Limpopo is the northernmost province of South Africa. It is named after the Limpopo River, which forms the province's western and northern borders. The capital and largest city in the province is Polokwane, while the provincial legislature ...

Province) * Mpumalanga Provincial Heritage Resources Authority (

Mpumalanga Mpumalanga () is a province of South Africa. The name means "East", or literally "The Place Where the Sun Rises" in the Swazi, Xhosa, Ndebele and Zulu languages. Mpumalanga lies in eastern South Africa, bordering Eswatini and Mozambique. ...

Province) *

Northern Cape Heritage Resources Authority The Northern Cape Heritage Resources Authority, previously called Ngwao Boswa jwa Kapa Bokone (seTswana for 'Heritage Northern Cape'), and commonly known as 'Boswa', is a provincial heritage resources authority established in 2003 by the MEC ...

, (

Northern Cape The Northern Cape is the largest and most sparsely populated province of South Africa. It was created in 1994 when the Cape Province was split up. Its capital is Kimberley. It includes the Kalahari Gemsbok National Park, part of the Kgalagadi ...

Province) * National Heritage Council of Namibia * North West Provincial Heritage Resources Authority ( North West Province) * Provincial Heritage Resources Authority Gauteng (

Gauteng Gauteng ( ) is one of the nine provinces of South Africa. The name in Sotho-Tswana languages means 'place of gold'. Situated on the Highveld, Gauteng is the smallest province by land area in South Africa. Although Gauteng accounts for only ...