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South African flag proposals (1993)

Procedure
Shortlisted Six Proposals

See also:

Procedure

The current South African flag was designed by Mr Fred Brownell, then State Herald of South Africa (and SAVA Chairperson).

A Commission on National Symbols was set up by the multi-party Negotiating Council (which was busy negotiating a interim Constitution) on 10 August 1993. The purpose of this Commission was to recommend at least four flags and coats of arms, a seal and an anthem for the transition period following the 1994 elections. The Commission was given until the end of October 1993 to make its recommendations to the Negotiating Council.

The Commission met for the first time on 15 September 1993 and had approximately 5 weeks to complete its task. Requests for public submissions were publicised in the media and letters were sent to 24 000 educational institutions encouraging them to participate in the process to select new national symbols.

The Commission on National Symbols was divided into 3 sub-committees dealing with the issue of a national flag, coat of arms and national anthem respectively. The guidelines for submissions for the national flag were as follows:

The flag should be of a unique design
It should promote national unity
It should be so simple that even a child can recognise and draw it
Primary colours are preferred
Designs to be submitted in full colour
A brief motivation and explanation of the design may also be included.

It was also pointed out that the request for public participation was not a competition and that the Commission reserved the
right to use such elements from the proposals as it deemed fit in its de