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The founding provisions of South Africa’s constitution recognise 12 official languages: Sepedi, Sesotho, Setswana, siSwati, Tshivenda, Xitsonga, Afrikaans, English, isiNdebele, isiXhosa, isiZulu and, since 2023, South African Sign Language or SASL.
The home language of most people in KwaZulu-Natal is, unsurprisingly, isiZulu. In the Eastern Cape it’s isiXhosa. Around half the people of the Western Cape and Northern Cape speak Afrikaans. In Gauteng and Mpumalanga, no single language dominates.
Mixed with over a dozen African languages for two centuries, spiced by imports from British, Dutch and Portuguese colonies, South African English has its own rich, varied and weird flavour.
Nearly 30% of black South Africans speak isiZulu as a first language, and 20% isiXhosa. Some 76% of coloured people speak Afrikaans, and 86% of Indian South Africans speak English. Sixty percent of white people speak Afrikaans, and 30% speak English.
South Africa has nine provinces, each with its own history, landscape, population, languages, economy, cities and government. They are the Eastern Cape, the Free State, Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, Limpopo, Mpumalanga, the Northern Cape, North West and the Western Cape.
Each of South Africa’s 11 languages has a fascinating vocabulary, with some words and phrases influenced by other languages, and many unique to that language. Learn a little South African with these animations.
Black South Africans spoke their own languages. These had already been ignored in their education. English had long been the medium of instruction – their second language – and was a language most urban young black people were at least familiar with.
South Africa has a population of 56.5-million people, according to 2017 estimates. The 2011 census puts it at 51.5-million – the fourth-largest population in Africa and the 25th-largest in the world.
South Africa is twice the size of France and 5 times the size of the UK. It dwarfs most European countries, but doesn't stand up to the giants of Asia and the Americas. South Africa Gateway on Facebook
South Africa Gateway is a free, non-profit project produced by Mary Alexander. We research and publish information on South Africa – and Africa as a whole – in an unbiased way, using dependable data from local and global statistical agencies.