South Africa

New governments, when take the power, often change the flags, thinking it'll change the people's feeling. I'm skeptic about it. For me, new flags can't change the people's identity, but change in people's identity can turn necessary a new flag. This occurred with South Africans: in 1994, they changed from the first flag to second:

Of course, I prefer the last. The first flag is a combination of the Dutch "Prince flag" with, in the center, miniatures of flags from United Kingdom and two former Boer republics: Orange and Transvaal. Summarily, only references to European-ethnic people.

With the end of apartheid, the South African citizenship was opened to African-ethnic people. The people's feeling was different, there was an imminent identity reconstruction over the country; the flag wasn't corresponding anymore the people identity. Quickly, it was prepared a provisional flag, that, because its enormous popularity, became permanent. It's the second flag.

The basis of this design is the former flag; if you look behind the pall, you'll see the same tricolor flag. In this case, the red tone is an intermediary between Dutch orange and English plain red. Black, gold and green are the colors from African National Congress flag, used to represent the African-ethnic population.

The presence of the horizontal pall has a special meaning: two people (represented by two legs on left) coming in same direction (the only leg in right).

If you need to present a defect of this flag, I can see a critical one: the flag has six main colors! Probably, it's the only national flag in this condition. But, it's so creative, ambitious and... South African that, if you review, you'll see why this flag still make magic!