South Africa Tourism

Situated at the most southern tip of Africa, South Africa marks several diverse ecosystems. The vast shrublands is an Inland safari destination Kruger National Park covered in big game, lush winelands makes the Western Cape unique. Tourists who want to know more about this beautiful country will find the following information to be helpful.

South Africa have a population of 52.98 million and uses a currency called ZAR or South African rand, currently Jacob Zuma is the president and the country have 11 official languages. The languages belongs to several cultures part of the rainbow nation which includes the following.


Xhosa is the language used by approximately 16 percent of South Africa’s population, or 8.3 million people. Xhosa is used by an ethnic group and characterised by a number of clicking sounds formed by the tongue.

22.7% of people in South Africa speaks Zulu, which is understood by 50% of its inhabitants. Zulu falls under the Nguni group of Bantu languages. Xhosa as well as Zulu are the only two languages mutually understandable.

The Afrikaans language is one of South Africa’s official languages and a large proportion of the local population uses it as their first or second language. It is still taught in schools. Afrikaans has a fascinating history of its own, and have a deep heritage and culture.

Venda also known as Luvenda and Tshivenda, originated from the Bantu language. Tshivenda speakers, which are over 650 000 live in the Limpopo Province. Venda speakers is part of a royal family line and strictly lives by their tradition.

Ndebele is a language used by many South African, African people it is a beautiful language and spoken by Ndebele South Africans.

Sepedi also mentioned as Sesotho sa Laboa is a language of Sepedi is used by over 4,208,980 individuals who live mostly in Gauteng and Mpumalanga.

Setswana also known as Tswana is actually Botswana’s national language. However, the majority of Tswana or Setswana speakers are found in South Africa. It is the Northern Cape that is the source of the Setswana and Afrikaans speakers.

Southern Sesotho is a Bantu language, which originated from the Bantu-Nguni era, is also known as Souto, Suto, Sisutho or even Suthu. The language, originates from Pedi and Suto, as well as Tswana which are understandable but also considered to be separate languages.

Swati, siSwati or Swazi are all the similar languages, just called different names. Swati is actually part of the Nguni Group of Bantu languages. Mainly used by people in Swaziland.

Tsonga is mainly verbal throughout southern Africa by the Shangaan’s. It is part of Bantu branch when it comes to the Niger-Congo languages.

South Africa is unique due to its Rainbow Nation, a title capturing its ethnic and cultural diversity. Its population is one of the most multifaceted and varied in the world. The South African populations is made up of 4.5 million whites, over 41 million blacks, 1.3 million Indian/ Asian , 4.6 million coloureds 0f which 48.7% are male and 51.3% are female.

South Africanisms worth knowing for your visit would include words like “just now” meaning sometime soon; lift is used for an elevator, koppie to describe a rocky hill, flat is an apartment, robot is the name for traffic lights, bundu is the bushveld and braai is a barbeque.