Old council memories are locked away

Old memories of the Springs council as it was before the city amalgamated with Ekurhuleni Metro are locked away in a vault for safe-keeping.

This came to light after the Addie enquired about what happened to the old Springs mayoral chain, gowns and council regalia.

Lebogang Ramashala, spokesman of Ekurhuleni Metro said the Springs mayoral chain was in safe-keeping at an Absa bank. This was together with other mayoral chains and related regalia that were collected from all the erstwhile local councils.

She said residents of Springs may, through prior arranged appointment with Absa, get permission to see the chains under very strict safety conditions.

Questioned why the old mayoral chain could not be exhibited in the Springs Gallery, she said these mayoral chains were of a security concern because they were “interesting items” and too valuable to be stolen. “That’s why the metro decided to take it into safe-keeping,” she said.

The mayoral cloaks are currently at Benoni Museum where they, as well as well as the chains and other regalia, were registered as Ekurhuleni Metro Municipality assets.

On the Addie’s visit to the museum, the curator Elizabeth Gumbi, showed us some of the gowns that they recently had dry-cleaned. These gowns, used by all of the old towns’ and cities’ mayors, would eventually become part of an exhibition.

She explained that because a lot of the councillors’ gowns were black, some of these were donated to people who could use it.

The Springs mayoral gown was blue on the outside and gold on the inside, explained former Springs mayor, Gert Parsons.

He said the symbolism of this cloak’s two extreme colours was that every case had two sides.

The gowns, as well as that of the mayoral chain story were mentioned in the book on Springs 80 years, with managing editor Dick White.

This book told that Rand Afrikaanse Universiteit re-designed the gowns in 1968. The councillors had black gowns with red.

On the real gold chain the book explained the town of Springs came in existence in 1912, but had no chain for its mayor.

When the minister of mining, Senator FS Malan visited this area in 1919, Sir Ernest Oppenheimer of Anglo American Corporation who was one of the guests, was requested to donate a chain to Springs.

Councillor McCollough, leader of Springs council then, on Oppenheimer’s recommendation, requested donations from the mines in the area to make the chain. The mines that contributed to this were Springs, Daggafontein, Oos-Daggafontein, Oos-Geduld, Geduld, Grootvlei and Vogelstruisbult.

The chain was made of 18 ounces of gold by a local jeweller from Second Avenue, Mr Gordimer. The book recalled that he was almost arrested for having this gold in his possession without the necessary permit.

According to the book, Oppenheimer was also at the handing over of the chain to the council. He said at that event that the symbolism of this golden chain was that the person carrying the mayoral chain was chained to serve his community.

Since 1952 the names of the mayors were engraved on each of the miniature shields on the mayoral chain.

No photographs were available of this chain as the Addie did not visit the vault where it is in safe-keeping.