South Africa set September 17 as South African Chinese Language Day, according to the Chinese ambassador to South Africa Lin Songtian.

(Photo: Xinhua)

Lin made the announcement at the Chinese Language Teaching in South Africa Gala Night on Monday in Pretoria, administrative capital of South Africa.

The Chinese language has become increasingly popular in South Africa since the country introduced Chinese as a second language in its curriculum in 2015, South African Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga said.

The minister praised the achievements of Chinese language teaching in South Africa and expressed her wishes for enhancing people-to-people exchanges through language teaching projects.

South Africa is the country with the largest number of Confucius Institutes and Confucius Classes on the African continent.

Six Confucius Institutes and three Confucius Classrooms have been founded and 54 Chinese teachers and volunteers are teaching Chinese in the country.

Chinese language curriculums are provided in 45 primary and secondary schools.  More than 7,100 primary and secondary school students and 1,300 university students are learning Chinese in South Africa.