South Africa Flag History
New South African Flag NEW 1994 –
The flag of South Africa was designed in March 1994 and adopted on 27 April 1994, at the beginning of South Africa’s 1994 general election, to replace the flag that had been used since 1928. The new national flag, designed by the then State Herald of South Africa Frederick Brownell, was chosen to represent the country’s new democracy after the end of apartheid.
The flag has horizontal bands of red on the top, and blue on the bottom, of equal width, separated by a central green band which splits into a horizontal ‘Y’ shape, the arms of which end at the corners of the hoist side. The ‘Y’ embraces a black isosceles triangle from which the arms are separated by narrow yellow bands, and the red and blue bands are separated from the green band and its arms by narrow white stripes. Three of the flag’s colours were taken from the flags of the Boer Republics and the Union Jack, while the remaining three colours were taken from the flag of the African National Congress.
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South Africa Flag History
Old South African Flag – 1928-1994
The flag of South Africa from 1928 to 1994 was originally used by the Union of South Africa from 1928 to 1961 and later the Republic of South Africa until 1994. It was also used in South-West Africa when the territory was under South African rule. Based on the Dutch Prince’s Flag, it contained the flag of the United Kingdom, the flag of the Orange Free State and the flag of the South African Republic in the centre.
It was adopted in 1928 by an act of Parliament from the first Afrikaner majority government. In 1948, after their election victory, the National Party unsuccessfully tried to amend the flag design to remove what they called the “Blood Stain” (the flag of the United Kingdom).
After South Africa left the Commonwealth in 1961 and renamed itself to the ‘Republic of South Africa’, the flag was retained as the national flag. In 1968, Prime Minister John Vorster proposed that a new national flag for South Africa be adopted in 1971 to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the country leaving the Commonwealth. Vorster’s idea did not gain Parliamentary support and the flag change never happened. As such, this flag was used during the apartheid era as well, leading to it being labelled the ‘Apartheid flag’.
It was replaced by the current flag of South Africa in 1994 with the commencement of the republic’s transitional constitution and the end of apartheid. Following its retirement in 1994, the flag has been controversial within South Africa, with some people viewing it as historic and a symbol of Afrikaner heritage, while others view it as a symbol of apartheid and of white supremacy. In 2019, the Equality Court ruled that public displays of the flag would be classed as hate speech, although exceptions would be allowed for ‘cases of journalistic, academic and artistic expression’.
Source – Wikipedia
Where to buy South African Flag
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