All 9 provinces have a flag. Each province was granted a coat of arms, in most cases designed by State Herald Frederick Brownell. Currently only one province, Mpumalanga, has adopted an official provincial flag, doing so in February 1996. The other eight provinces can be represented by white banners charged with their coats of arms.
Between 1910 and 1994, South Africa was divided into four provinces, Cape Province, Natal, Orange Free State and Transvaal. These provinces had their own coat of arms but not their own flags.
In April 1994, South Africa was divided into nine provinces. Each province was granted a coat of arms, in most cases designed by State Herald Frederick Brownell. Currently only one province, Mpumalanga, has adopted an official provincial flag, doing so in February 1996.[1] The other eight provinces can be represented by white banners charged with their coats of arms.
Nine of the ten Black 'homelands' which were created inside South African Federation under the apartheid system, had their own flags, i.e. Transkei (1966–94), Bophuthatswana (1973–94), Ciskei (1973–94), Gazankulu (1973–94), Venda (1973–94), Lebowa (1974–94), QwaQwa (1975–94), KwaZulu (1977–94), and KwaNdebele (1982–94). KaNgwane was the only homeland that never adopted its own distinctive flag, instead using the national flag of South Africa.
All these flags became obsolete when South Africa reincorporated the homelands on April 27, 1994.
Some of the bantustans established by South Africa during its period of administering South West Africa had adopted their own distinctive flags whilst others used the flag of South Africa.