The current national flag of South Africa uses six colors: black, yellow, green, white, red and blue.
The design was first hoisted on 27 April 1994, the day of South Africa’s first fully representative democratic election. It replaced the former flag, whose design was strongly associated with the apartheid era. The new flag was intended to symbolize unity and the joining of different political traditions.
Its central green Y-shape represents the convergence of paths and the nation moving forward together. The colors were drawn from several historical sources rather than assigned one universally official meaning. Black, green and yellow are associated with the African National Congress, while red, white and blue also appeared in earlier colonial and republican flags.
The flag is sometimes described as having five colors because the green Y is visually dominant, but black, yellow, green, white, red and blue are all present as separate colors.