After the Anglo-Boer War from 1899 to 1902 and the formation of the Union of South Africa in 1910, the British Union Flag became the national flag of South Africa. As was the case throughout the British Empire, the Red and Blue Ensign with the Union coat of arms were granted by British Admiralty warrants in 1910 for use at sea.
These ensigns were not intended to be used as the Union’s national flag, although they were used by some people as such, especially the Red Ensign. It was only after the first post-Union Afrikaner government took office in 1925 that a bill was introduced in Parliament to make provisions for a national flag for the Union; this action immediately prompted three years of near civil war, as the British thought that the Boers wanted to remove their cherished imperial symbols. Natal Province even threatened to secede from the Union.
Finally, a compromise was reached that resulted in the adoption of a separate flag for the Union in late 1927, and the design was first hoisted on 31 May 1928. The design was based on the so-called Van Riebeeck flag or Prinsevlag (“Prince’s flag” in Afrikaans) which was originally the Dutch flag, and consisted of orange, white, and blue horizontal stripes. A version of this flag was used as the flag of the Dutch East India Company at the Cape (with the VOC logo in the centre) from 1652 until 1795. The South African addition to the design was three smaller flags centred in the white stripe. The smaller flags were the Union Flag towards the hoist, the Orange Free State Vierkleur hanging vertically and the Transvaal Vierkleur towards the fly.
The choice of the Prinsevlag as the basis upon which to design the South African flag had more to do with compromise than Afrikaner political desires, as the Prinsevlag was believed to be the first flag hoisted on South African soil and was politically neutral as it was no longer the national flag of any nation. A further element of this compromise was that the Union Flag would continue to fly alongside the new South African national flag over official buildings. This state of duality continued until 1957 when the Union Flag lost its official status as per an Act of Parliament; the Red Ensign had lost its status as South Africa’s merchant flag in 1951.
Following a referendum, the country became a republic on 31 May 1961, but the design of the flag remained unchanged. However, there was intense pressure to change the flag, particularly from Afrikaners who resented the fact that the Union Flag was a part of the flag.
The former Prime Minister and architect of apartheid, Hendrik Frensch Verwoerd, had a dream to hoist a “clean” flag over South Africa in the 1960s. The proposed design comprised three vertical stripes of the same colour of the Prinsevlag with a leaping Springbok Antelope over a wreath of six proteas in the centre. H.C. Blatt, then assistant secretary in the Department of the Prime Minister, designed the flag. Verwoerd’s successor, John Vorster, raised the flag issue at a news conference on 30 March 1971 and said that in light of the impending 10th anniversary Republic Day celebrations, he preferred to “keep the affair in the background”. This he said was done because he did not want the flag question to degenerate into a political football, as happened in the 1920s over the Union Flag, and that the matter would be considered again when circumstances would be “more normal”. He also went on to say that “I only want to warn, and express hope, that no person should drag politics in any form into this matter, because the flag must, at all times, be raised above party politics in South Africa”.
Despite the flag’s origins predating the National Party’s ascension to power, the presence of the three little flags in the middle was internationally perceived as being an implied endorsement of apartheid. In this light it is possible to theorise that the end of apartheid may not have beckoned a change in national flag if a more neutral one had indeed been selected in the 1960s, or perhaps even if the three subflags had been merely excised before the Prinsevlag became the inadvertent symbol of apartheid it did.
This is quite the complicated issue. First off: this flag is not about Apartheid as it was the compromise national flag between the 3 main White ethnic groups when the macro State of South Africa was established. This flag was adopted in 1927 while during the initial Apartheid era but still LONG before the Grand Apartheid of the 1950s. The Apartheid establishment even wanted to adopt A NEW flag. Furthermore: this flag subjugated the Boer people under the Cape based Afrikaner Nationalists.
ja ik had het ook tegen hem!
en waarom heeft nl deze vlag vervangen hij is zo mooi!!!
Een prachtige vlag en een prachtig volkslied.Het blanke volksdeel van Zuid Afrika is en blijft toch verwant met ons Nederlandse volk, alhoewel er ook veel blanken in vroeger eeuwen uit Duitsland en Frankrijk kwamen.
Bijzonder mooi vind ik het Afrikaanders, de taal van het blanke Zuid-Afrika.
@pepsijog
Probeer eerst te lezen voordat je commentaar geeft ! mongool !!!
go read the history of this flag!!
the real proud people ,is the true comrades who fought and died under thid racist bastards
well i do associate you racist with this apartheid flag you so fucking proud of !
Helemaal mee eens
Het leuke aan de Prinsenvlag is dat deze werd gedragen door Orangisten tijdens de Tachtigjarige Oorlog. Het is wel jammer dat veel mensen nu deze vlag associeren met extreem rechts. Het begon jammer genoeg met de NSB tijdens WO II en de kleine rechtse groeperingen die Nederland anno 2008 kent. Het “alleenrecht” die extreem rechts over deze vlag heeft moet ophouden. Probeer deze associatie te vermijden en doorbreek het taboe.
ze konden beter de prinsenvlag zelf doen, nl gebruiktte die toch niet meer, waarom eigenlijk ze hadden na napoleon toch weer oranje blanje bleu gebruiken
@GrootHolland1572
Je bent nooit te oud om te leren! De vlag van Hessen ( waar Wilhelm von Nassau op de Dillenburg geboren werd)is tot op de dag van vandaag ook Rood Wit en Blauw.Iedereen heeft het altijd over het ” Huis van Oranje” maar ik herinner mij toch duidelijk dat onze Willem van Nassau als enig erfgenaam van deze uitgestorven tak werd aangemerkt en vanaf die tijd de naam “d’Orange” mocht voeren. Of heb jij andere informatie ?
@dachshundt
Dat is niet helemaal waar. De luxemburgers hebben alleen nog het licht-blauw van de Nassau’s.
Maar niet het Oranje, van het Huis van Oranje.
De Oranje-Blanje-Bleu vlagh is wel de enige echte trotse vlag van de 7 Provinciën, maar werd afgeschaft in 1650 door de anti-stadhouderlijke staatsgezinde Johan de Witt, die onder anderen daarvoor samen met zijn broeder Cornelis, de held van Chatham en de Slag bij Solebay in 1672 werd vermoord.
vlamingen dat is in belgië
Long live for the Royal Nassau family in the Netherlands and Luxembourg
God save the Queen and Duke
What must you do? Shut up, for once. You’ve spoken far too much already. Learn to give up what you’ve lost — it was based on shit anyway.
Helemaal mee eens, onder de Prinsenvlag hoppelijk.
De enige echte Hollandse vlag uit de tijd van de Republiek der 7 Verenigde Nederlanden, met de vlaggen van de Transvaal en Oranje Vrijstaat. Alleen Luxemburg, ooit onderdeel van het door de Pruissen en Engelsen pgerichte Konikrijk der Nederlanden hebben de Oranje,Blanje Blue vlag nog.
Ja en nu effe heel snel een andere regering.
Stay where you are , dont leave.
dankje we zullen weder verenigen en regeren!!
Wilhelmina decided to make the red official, as it was already been used for quite some time and the Dutch National Socialists were claiming the “Oranje Blanje Blue” as the one true flag.
What must we do? Leave or fight?
Bravo trotse Afrikaners!!
Hollanders, Afrikaners en Vlamingen zijn EEN volk!!
Wij zullen dat NOOIT vergeten
Dit WAS mooi!
Herover jullie land Afrikaners(Boeren).