The Y-shaped band on South Africa’s national flag is green.
The green band runs from the hoist side, where the flag is attached, converges near the centre and then extends horizontally toward the fly edge. It is edged in white along the red and blue sections, while narrow yellow borders separate it from the black triangle at the hoist.
South Africa adopted the present flag on 27 April 1994, the day of the country’s first fully democratic general election. Designed by Frederick Brownell, it replaced the flag used from 1928 to 1994 and was intended to represent the country’s new political era.
The flag is sometimes called the Rainbow Flag, but its colours do not have one universally fixed official meaning. The government describes the Y-shaped motif as representing the convergence of diverse elements and the path forward in unity. The red upper band, blue lower band and black triangle are therefore not substitutes for the green central design.