January
6 – Marthinus Wessel Pretorius becomes the first President of the South African Republic (Zuid Afrikaansche Republiek).
June
29 – Act no. 10 of 29 June 1857 grants the Cape Town Railway and Dock Company approval to construct a 57-mile long (92-kilometre) railway between Cape Town and Wellington.
Unknown date
Robert Moffat completes Old Testament Bible translation into Setswana.
About 157 Irish women arrive on the ship Lady Kennaway and settle in British Kaffraria.
The first Legislative Council is selected in the Natal Colony.
The Union Steam Ship Company wins the first mail contract for regular mail service between Great Britain and South Africa.
The Cape Point Lighthouse at Cape Point is built.
Building of the Roman Rock Lighthouse at the entrance to Simon's Town starts and only completed in 1861.
2 October – Martinus Theunis Steyn, South African lawyer, politician and statesman, last president of the independent Orange Free State.
15 December – Anna Maria Truter (80), a Cape Colony botanical artist and wife of Sir John Barrow, 1st Baronet, dies in England.
1857 in South Africa Wikipedia (Text) CC BY-SA
