The term "coloured" in South Africa refers to members of multiracial ethnic communities in Southern Africa who may have ancestry from more than one of the various populations inhabiting the region, including African, European, and Asian. The communities designated as coloured are primarily descended from the Khoisan people who originally inhabited the western parts of South Africa, from Asian and African slaves brought to the Cape from the earliest years of the colony, from European settlers, and from other Africans. The term "Cape Coloureds" generally refers to those South Africans of mixed cultural and racial stock whose ancestors include Europeans, Khoi and other indigenous African people, and Asians.

The coloured people in South Africa are regarded as having some of the most diverse genetic backgrounds because of the vast combination of genetics, different families, and individuals within a family may have a variety of different physical features. Most coloured people speak Afrikaans as a first language and most still live in the Western and Northern Cape provinces, where they comprise an overall majority of the population.

The coloured community, the official term for mixed-race people in the country, were alienated during the country’s apartheid regime. Many in the community now feel that the current democracy also marginalizes them – that they “aren’t black enough” . An ongoing legacy of the apartheid era, in nearly all social indicators – from average income to rates of HIV infection – coloureds as a group still rank between blacks and whites.