White South Africans () are South Africans who identify as or are considered to be white. Most White South Africans belong to one of two groups of European descent: the Afrikaans-speaking descendants of the Dutch East India Company's original settlers, known as Afrikaners, and the Anglophone descendants of predominantly British colonists. In 2016, 57.9% were native Afrikaans speakers, 40.2% were native English speakers, and 1.9% spoke another language as their mother tongue, such as Portuguese, Greek, or German. White South Africans are by far the largest population of White Africans. "White" was a legally defined racial classification during apartheid.