The blue stood for sky and rain, the white for peace, the green for land, and the red for faith.
A new flag, designed by Sergeant Retšelisitsoe Matete,[5] was adopted on 20 January 1987, following a military coup which ousted the Basotho National Party after 20 years in power.
A light brown traditional Basotho shield along with an assegai (lance) and knobkierrie (club) replaced the mokorotlo as the primary emblem.
The bottom diagonal contained a blue strip for rain and a green triangle for prosperity.
The bill changing the flag was approved by the National Assembly on 18 September 2006, with 84 members of parliament voting in favour of it, 18 against it, and two abstaining.