How should South Africa's flag be displayed vertically against a wall?
The red band should be on the viewer's left, with the hoist or cord seam at the top.
Flag of South Africa
Its colour palette includes red, blue, green, black, white, and yellow.
Current flag
Flag emoji 🇿🇦
South Africa
Flag facts
Information about the flag’s design, colours and proportions.
- Proportion
- 2:3 height: width
Flag design
- Layout
- Complex layout
- Details
- Fimbriated element
- Shapes
- Y shape – In the field
- Colours
- Red, blue, green, black, white, and yellow
Sources
A design introduced with South Africa's democratic transition
The South African Government credits former State Herald Fred Brownell with designing the national flag. It was first used on 27 April 1994.
The South African Government describes the design and colours as a synopsis of the main elements in the country's flag history.
There is no official meaning for each colour
The government advises against attaching one universal meaning to individual colours: people and communities interpret them differently. It offers a qualified reading of the central form instead: the V-shaped lines can be seen as diverse elements converging and moving ahead together.
Frequently asked questions
Country facts
- Type
- Country
- Name
- South Africa
- Continent
- Africa
- Capital
- Pretoria
- ISO 3166-1 alpha-2
- ZA
- ISO 3166-1 alpha-3
- ZAF
- ISO 3166-1 numeric
- 710
- Top-level domain
- .za
- Area
- 1,219,910 km²
- Population
- 64,747,319 (2025)
- Currency
- ZAR
- Calling code
- +27
Flags with a similar layout
These flags come from the same region and share one or more design characteristics.
Historical flags: South Africa (1652–)
Images are ordered by the years listed in the collection. A listed year may not be the flag’s official adoption year.
About historical flags
Vexilla's historical flag collection includes former flags associated with present-day countries and territories, as well as flags of states, empires, and other authorities that historically governed them.
A flag's inclusion in a country's historical collection does not necessarily mean that the country was independent at the time or that the flag was its own national flag.
The years shown are based on historical records in the dataset and do not always indicate the date of official adoption. The collection is not exhaustive, and historical usage, territorial coverage, and interpretations may vary.
