Heraldic Description
An addendum to the Transitional Executive Council agenda (April 1994) described the flag in heraldic terms as follows:
The National flag shall be rectangular in the proportion of two in the width to three to the length; per pall from the hoist, the upper band red (chilli) and lower band blue, with a black triangle at the hoist; over the partition lines a green pall one fifth the width of the flag, fimbriated white against the red and blue, and gold against the black triangle at the hoist, and the width of the pall and its fimbriations is one third the width of the flag.
Schedule One of the Constitution of South Africa (1996) replaced the heraldic definition and described the flag in plain English as follows:
The national flag is rectangular; it is one and a half times as long as it is wide.
- It is black, gold, green, white, chilli red and blue.
- It has a green Y-shaped band that is one fifth as wide as the flag. The centre lines of the band start in the top and bottom corners next to the flag post, converge in the centre of the flag, and continue horizontally to the middle of the free edge.
- The green band is edged, above and below in white, and towards the flag post end, in gold. Each edging is one fifteenth as wide as the flag.
- The triangle next to the flag post is black.
- The upper horizontal band is chilli red and the lower horizontal band is blue. These bands are each one third as wide as the flag.
Read more about this topic: Flag Of South Africa
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