The old South African flag - discarded at the end of the apartheid era - is draped over the player's tunnel at Westpac Stadium during the All Blacks-Springboks test.

A South African singer-songwriter has slammed the appearance of the old "apartheid flag" at the Springboks-All Blacks test in Wellington.

Television images showed the flag - used by South Africa from 1928 till 1994 - being waved by a spectator near the edge of the player's tunnel at Westpac Stadium.

South Africa's Sport24 website described the flag's appearance as "unwelcome".

"The flag ... represents all that was abhorrent during the days of apartheid and is a symbol of white supremacy for many," www.Sport24.co.za reported.

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"It was replaced in 1994 - some 24 years ago - by the current flag in time for the first elections after the apartheid era had ended."

Writing on Twitter, Bouwer Bosch, a South African singer-songwriter, actor and entrepreneur slammed the flag's appearance.

This is so pathetic. Leaving SA then flying the old flag at a Bok game. We must be part of the solution, not the problem! pic.twitter.com/PRmAjdpYuM — Sitdown Comedian (@BouwerBosch) September 15, 2018

Bosch said later on Twitter that he wasn't "offended by the flag" which was "a piece of cloth" but he was alarmed by "the intention behind it".

" I"m not not blin[d] towards the reality of SA. But how is waving the apartheid flag helping? It brings up hurt for millions of black people, thats my problem today. History is present today still."

He said the flag waved in Wellington, "was the apartheid government's flag".

The flag was introduced to South Africa two decades prior to the advent of the apartheid regime in 1948.

Nelson Mandela's African National Congress (ANC) campaigned for a new flag during talks with F W De Klerk's government during the negotiations to end apartheid in 1992.

The new flag - endorsed by Mandela and de Klerk - was officially introduced just before the South African general election in 1994.

* If you know more about the old SA flag at the Wellington test email ffxsport@stuff.co.nz

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