Discover South Africa

South Africa is a nation of 47.9 million people of diverse origins, cultures, languages and religion. The estimated population figures are Black African at 79.4% comprising of Bapedi, Basotho, Ndebele, Swazi, Tsonga, Tswana, Venda, Xhosa, Zulu. White at 9.2% which are mainly descended from Dutch, English, French, German, Irish and Scottish. Coloured at 8.9% descended from African, Eastern and European cultures. Indian and Asian at 2.5%. Smaller, yet significant, groups are the Chinese, Greek, Italian, Jewish, Lebanese and Portuguese. A high level of immigrants from various other countries have settled in South Africa. By 2005 an estimated 212 000 British citizens were residing in South Africa.

If you are a visitor wishing to learn to speak the South African language ... read on. South Africa has eleven official languages. Listed alphabetically they are: Afrikaans, English, isiNdebele, isiXhosa, isiZulu, Sepedi, Sesotho, Setswana, siSwati, Tshivenda, Xitsonga. Although all the languages are given equal status, some languages are spoken more than others. The three most spoken first home languages are Zulu (23.8%), Xhosa (17.6%) and Afrikaans (13.3%).

Despite the fact that English is widely recognised as the language of commerce and science, it is spoken by only approx 8.5% of South Africans at home. English and/or Afrikaans are, however, widely understood around the country's main urban areas and to a large extent in the rural areas as well. The Asian/Indian community speak mainly English, with languages such as Hindi, Telugu, Tamil or Gujarati being spoken less frequently.

Excluding colloquialism / slang, the country also recognises eight non-official languages: Fanagalo, Khoe, Lobedu, Nama, Northern Ndebele, Phuthi, San and South African Sign Language. Furthermore there are an estimated 15 000 KhoiSan living in the Cape, Namibia and Botswana area. They have inhabited this land for many thousands of years and the influence of the distinctive clicking sound in their language can be heard in the present day Xhosa language. However their languages are now in danger of becoming extinct and some groups within South Africa are attempting to promote their use and revival.