Romanians of South Africa

The Romanian Community of South Africa is one of the least-known-about in the context of the Romanian Diaspora. By lay accounts, the population of ethnic Romanians living in South Africa runs into the thousands. In 2004 during a state visit to Romania by Jacob Zuma, Adrian Nastase (then Romanian Prime-Minister) estimated the figure to be around 3000, he however qualified this remark by referring to these individuals as being of "Romanian Origin"

When referring to the Romanians of South Africa it thus needs to be stressed that this term includes both Romanian-South Africans (holding dual citizenship) and ordinary Romanian citizens living in South Africa. For practical purposes though, it should be noted that the vast majority of Romanians in South Africa hold dual citizenship (South African & Romanian) due to the relatively liberal citizenship laws in both countries permitting them to do so.

The Romanians of South Africa were a virtually non-existent group up until the late 1980's and early 1990's. Small numbers of Romanians fled to South Africa during Romania's communist-era but the greatest influx occurred during the immediate years following the fall of Communism in 1989. The political and economic turmoil following the Romanian Revolution of 1989 pushed thousands of educated professionals to find greener pastures. Coincidently, at the same time South Africa was emerging from Apartheid and the country was in need of professionals who could service the needs of the emerging integrated non-racial society.

The Romanian community of South Africa has been considerably assimilated into Anglo-South African society. English has become the first-language of the younger generation, with Romanian being mainly used as the "family language" in the absence of non-Romanians. The younger generation have done their academic schooling in English and hence the current situation is to be expected. Amid this background it is also observable that Romanian-South Africans have not been assimilated by the Afrikaner or African elements of South-African culture.

South Africa's Romanians are concentrated in the cities of Durban and Johannesburg and there are many informal social gatherings that still take place between members of the older generation, many of whom knew each other whilst still in the old-country. The number of these gatherings has however decreased in recent times as the younger generation has become further anglicized.