Fanakalo is a vernacular or pidgin based primarily on Zulu, with English and a small Afrikaans input. It is used as a lingua franca, mainly in the gold, diamond, coal and copper mining industries in South Africa and to a lesser extent in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Namibia, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. Although it is used as a second language only, the number of speakers was estimated as "several hundred thousand" in 1975. Once the British left, English became the lingua franca enabling different ethnic groups in the same country to communicate with each other, and Fanakalo use declined.