[12] As a consequence of Apartheid policies and despite the abolition of the Population Registration Act in 1991, Coloureds are regarded as one of four race groups in South Africa.

[10][9] The classification continues to persist in government policy, to an extent, as a result of attempts at redress such as Black Economic Empowerment and Employment Equity.

[43][44] Due to integration with the Dutch and other ethnic groups in the Cape, there are many Afrikaans surnames of German origin e.g. Coetzee (from 'Kotze'), Pretorius, Booysen, Steenkamp, Kruger (from 'Krüger'), Botha, Venter, Cloete, Schoeman, Mulder, Kriel, Breytenbach, Engelbrecht, Potgieter, Maritz, Liebenberg, Fleischman, Weimers, and Schuster.

[55] The expansion of the Dutch Cape Colony was mainly caused by the dry and infertile nature of its immediate interior, therefore farmers needed fertile land because farms could only be settled where there were springs to provide permanent water.

[59] The Wild Coast Region of the Eastern Cape (which stretches from the provincial border with Natal to East London and Port Alfred) is named after its wilderness and the stormy seas that caused thousands of shipwrecks.

[70] In the early 1800s, the Griqua people left the Dutch Cape Colony and migrated to the north of the Karoo where they established Griqualand West.

[102] The Griqua people could trace their forefathers to two clans, the Koks and Barendse, the first was made up mainly of Khoikhoi and the second of mixed European descent.

When the British started settling in Natal from the mid-19th century, they established sugarcane plantations especially in the coastal regions (Durban, Stanger etc.)

[115] During the apartheid era in South Africa of the second half of the 20th century, the government used the term "Coloured" to describe one of the four main racial groups it defined by law (the fourth was "Asian," later "Indian").

Of particular importance is the fact that the instruction to classify "coloured persons" as a distinct racial group included individuals of African descent, commonly referred to as Negroes.

For example, Coloureds did not have to carry a dompas (a pass, an identity document designed to limit the movements of the black population), while the Griqua, who were seen as an indigenous African group, though heavily mixed, did.

The establishment of the Union of South Africa gave Coloured people the franchise, although by 1930 they were restricted to electing White representatives.

J. G. Strijdom, known as "the Lion of the North", continued the impetus to restrict Coloured rights, in order to entrench the new-won National Party majority.

Coloured participation on juries was removed in 1954, and efforts to abolish their participation on the common voters' roll in the Cape Province escalated drastically; it was accomplished in 1956 by a supermajority amendment to the 1951 Separate Representation of Voters Act, passed by Malan but held back by the judiciary as unconstitutional under the South Africa Act, the Union's effective constitution.

In order to bypass this safeguard, enforced since 1909 to ensure Coloured political rights in the then-British Cape Colony, Strijdom's government passed legislation to expand the number of Senate seats from 48 to 89.

The Appellate Division Quorum Bill increased the number of judges necessary for constitutional decisions in the Appeal Court from five to eleven.

The Torch Commando was prominent, while the Black Sash (White women, uniformly dressed, standing on street corners with placards) also made themselves heard.

In this way, the question of the Coloured vote became one of the first measures of the regime's unscrupulous nature and flagrant willingness to manipulate its inherited Westminster system.

Following the 1983 referendum, in which 66.3% of White voters supported the change, the Constitution was reformed to allow the Coloured and Indian minorities limited participation in separate and subordinate Houses in a tricameral Parliament.

The internal rationale was that South African whites, more numerous at the time than Coloureds and Indians combined, could bolster its popular support and divide the democratic opposition while maintaining a working majority.

This political alliance, often perplexing to outsiders, has sometimes been explained in terms of the culture and language shared by White and Coloured New National Party members, who both spoke Afrikaans.

Coloured people supported and were members of the African National Congress before, during and after the apartheid era: notable politicians include Ebrahim Rasool (previously Western Cape premier), Beatrice Marshoff, John Schuurman, Allan Hendrickse and Trevor Manuel, longtime Minister of Finance.

Under Rhodesia's predominantly white government, Coloureds had more privileges than black Africans, including full voting rights, but still faced social discrimination.

As far as family life, housing, eating habits, clothing and so on are concerned, the Christian Coloureds generally maintain a Western lifestyle.

While many affluent families live in large, modern, and sometimes luxurious homes, many urban coloured people rely on state-owned economic and sub-economic housing.

Initially, Coloureds were mainly semi-skilled and unskilled labourers who, as builders, masons, carpenters and painters, made an important contribution to the early construction industry in the Cape.

Another important field of work is the service sector, while an ever-increasing number of Coloureds operate in administrative, clerical and sales positions.

The corporation provided capital to businessmen, offered training courses and undertook the establishment of shopping centres, factories and the like.

[134] Some Coloureds (especially those whose forefathers were interracially mixed during the late 19th century and 20th century) have totally different ancestries (other European nationalities mixed with other African tribes) but because they moved to predominantly Afrikaans-speaking communities or they were born and bred in predominantly Afrikaans-speaking communities, they ended up speaking Afrikaans as their home language as well.

Bobotie, snoek-based dishes, koe'sisters, bredies, Malay roti and gatsbies are staple diets of Coloureds and other South Africans as well.