In 1968, Prime Minister John Vorster proposed that a new national flag for South Africa be adopted in 1971 to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the declaration of a republic.

[4][6] It was replaced by the current flag of South Africa in 1994 with the commencement of the country's transitional constitution and the end of apartheid.

In 2023, the Supreme Court of Appeal upheld that "gratuitous" displays of the flag constituted hate speech; exceptions exist for "cases of journalistic, academic and artistic expression" and for museums and places of historical interest.

[12] This was denounced by D. F. Malan, then the South African Minister of Home Affairs, who described the group of miniature flags "a scab... which will one day fall off".

The act came into force in 1928 when both flags were raised over the Houses of Parliament, Cape Town and the Union Buildings in Pretoria.

[15] This dual status was ended in 1957 with the passing of the Flags Amendment Act which declared that the Oranje, Blanje, Blou would be the sole flag of South Africa, with the act also declaring that "Die Stem van Suid-Afrika" would be the country's sole anthem and dropping "God Save the Queen".

Prime Minister B. J. Vorster convened a commission in that year to create a new flag in time for the tenth anniversary of the establishment of the republic in 1971, but no changes were eventually made.

[27][28] After 1989, F. W. de Klerk became the last State President of South Africa and immediately unbanned the African National Congress (ANC) and released their leader, Nelson Mandela, from prison.

During the return test, the Conservative Party handed out numerous flags to the majority white crowd as a symbol of defiance against the ANC.

[32] When the flag was lowered for the last time at the parliament building in Cape Town, anti-apartheid onlookers approvingly shouted "Down, down!"

[39] This association with apartheid and racism often led to calls for the flags that were used in a historical context to be removed from display.

In 2008, the flag was mistakenly put on posters in Ghana advertising that year's Africa Cup of Nations, sparking indignation among some South Africans.

[4][46] The flag was declared illegal for public display in South Africa in August 2019, when the Equality Court classified it as hate speech, with heavy enforcing penalties.

Judge Phineas Mojapelo declared that "Displaying [the apartheid flag] is destructive of our nascent non-racial democracy… it is an affront to the spirit and values of botho / ubuntu, which has become a mark of civilized interaction in post-apartheid South Africa".

[9] When AfriForum appealed the ban in the Supreme Court of Appeal in 2022, respondents represented by advocate Ngcukaitobi argued that the flag was meant to unite white South Africans against the native population, and that it was invented by the architects of apartheid to represent racial segregation.