Zimbabwe’s national flag was adopted on 18 April 1980. Its seven equal horizontal stripes are green, yellow, red, black, red, yellow and green. A black-edged white triangle at the hoist carries a gold Zimbabwe Bird over a red five-pointed star. The established hoist-to-fly ratio is 1:2. [1] [3]
Specification
Section 3 of the Flag of Zimbabwe Act makes its Schedule’s illustration and heraldic description the legal design. In plain language, the description specifies a green field, a red horizontal band bordered with gold, a black central band, and a black-bordered white triangle from the hoist, charged with a red five-pointed star and the Great Zimbabwe Bird over it. The blazon does not supply numeric construction dimensions or modern color codes. Section 4 requires a reference flag to be deposited in the National Archives; that deposited object was not inspected. [1]
Section 4 of the Constitution recognizes the national flag, reproduced in Part 1 of its First Schedule. The constitutional text consulted is the Veritas consolidation through September 2018, hosted by FAOLEX; current identity is corroborated by Presidential Communications. [2] [4]
Specimen colors
Values below come from the downloaded SVG, not the Commons page’s separate color table. They are screen approximations and do not establish textile, dye, Pantone or RAL standards. [5]
#006400 / asset screen value#FFD200 / asset screen value#D40000 / asset screen value#000000 / asset screen value#FFFFFF / asset screen valueConstruction notes
The inspected SVG has viewBox 0 0 25200 12600 and nominal dimensions 1200 × 600. Its field is drawn on a 126 × 63 grid scaled by 200: seven visible stripes each 9 units high. The white triangle has vertices (0,0), (0,63) and (42,31.5), so its apex is one third of the fly from the hoist. A black stroke 3 grid units wide is drawn beneath the white triangle, leaving 1.5 units visible outside its sloping edges; clipping removes overspill at the hoist. These field proportions agree with the 252 × 126 reference construction at half scale. [5] [3]
Star and bird: artwork is not a legal master
Flags of the World reports an irregular star in a construction drawing associated with the Act, but also documents regular stars on manufactured flags and variations in the bird. Its discussion cautions that handwritten annotations were supplied by a contributor. The Commons specimen uses a regular star, with rounded coordinates, and a detailed outlined bird; it illustrates the regular-star rendition rather than reproducing that irregular-star drawing. These are variants of artwork for the current flag, not separately adopted period flags. Exact device dimensions in this SVG are not asserted as legal requirements. [3] [5]
No authoritative physical color tolerances were established. The reference literature also reports differing Olympic and vexillological palettes; none is promoted here to a national manufacturing standard. Preserve the complete specimen when scaling and obtain an authorized production master for official manufacture. [3]
Historical record
The Act’s recorded commencement is 18 April 1980, matching the adoption date given by Flags of the World. This entry covers the current design from that date. The later constitutional recognition is not a new adoption date. [1] [3] [2]
Symbols
Presidential Communications associates green with farming and vegetation, gold with mineral resources, red with lives lost in the liberation struggle, and black with the African majority’s heritage. White represents peace and progress; the star represents international and political aspirations, and the Zimbabwe Bird expresses national history. These are government-published interpretations, distinct from the legal blazon. [4]
Usage
This is the Republic’s national flag, as identified in the Constitution and presented by Presidential Communications. The Act provides for regulations governing its reproduction and use. This reference specimen supplies identification and research context; its public-domain artwork label does not itself authorize every use of a national symbol. [2] [4] [1]
Source trail
- ZimLII: Flag of Zimbabwe Act, Chapter 10:10 ↗ — commencement, sections 3–5 and Schedule; Law Development Commission consolidation dated 31 December 2016. Text verified; the schedule illustration could not be independently inspected in this review.
- Constitution, section 4 ↗ and First Schedule, Part 1 ↗ — Veritas text through September 2018, hosted by FAOLEX; constitutional identity, not a dimensioned manufacturing sheet.
- Flags of the World: Zimbabwe ↗ — adoption, ratio, construction discussion, observed device variants and differing color references; contributors include Bruce Berry, Željko Heimer and Christopher Southworth.
- Presidential Communications: National Symbols ↗ — current national identity and government symbolism.
- Commons: Flag of Zimbabwe.svg, contributor history and rights ↗; local provenance and geometry record ↗ — regular-star vector rendition, distinct from the irregular-star reference drawing.
Sources checked 15 September 2026. Related records: Zambia and Botswana. Browse national flags or the Flag Index.