Tamil South Africans are South Africans of tamil descent. Amongst the language groups represented among the Indian immigrants who came from India to Natal,South Africa, between 1860 and 1911 are Tamil, Telugu,Hindi, and Gujarathi with Tamil people forming the majority. There were three groups of South Indians who arrived at Natal.

The first group was the labourers who came from the bottom level of the society and who knew Tamil language at oral level only.

The second group consisted of those who were ready to work in hotels, motels, offices, white masters houses and horse-stables as servers, servants and care-takers who knew pidgin English, with a little knowledge of Tamil in reading, writing and in speech.

The third group consisted of the free passengers who came to do business and who knew basic English and good Tamil . They came to do business to cater for the needs and necessities of Indians.

some other interesting informations:

The common word for a tangerine (which is called a naartjie in South Africa) is probably derived from the Tamil word nartei for a citron.
Bunny Chow - a favourite South African dish - is made from a vegetarian curry of beans, sold as a take-away food in a ½ loaf of bread, and comes from the word bhannia (the vegetarian shopkeeper caste) and chow (from the Chinese language).
Mynah birds, which were introduced to Durban from India, are one of the most common birds found in Natal and Gauteng. It appears in leading South African bird books.

*information is collected from various articles .