Johannesburg  - South Africa's High Court has decided that the Chinese qualify as "black people" for disadvantaged status that grants them privileged legal rights, SAPA news agency reported Wednesday.

Judge Cynthia Pretorius ordered that the Chinese be included in the definition of black people under the Broad-Based Economic Empowerment Act and the Employment Equity Act that grant benefits to Africans, coloureds and Indians.

During the apartheid era of racial separation in South Africa, Japanese people were classified as whites and Chinese as coloureds.

Once apartheid was dismantled, the Chinese were not included in the government's benefit programme for formerly disadvantaged groups.

The court action, launched by the Chinese Association of South Africa eight years ago, sought to redress the situation.

Chinese, Malays and Indians were brought to South Africa in the past to work under contract in the mines or on sugarcane plantations.

Many of them stayed on after their contracts ended. (dpa)