April
16 – Paul Kruger is re-elected president of the Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek.
May
9 – Paul Kruger is sworn in as president of the Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek.
July
22 – Zulu King Cetshwayo barely escapes with his life in a rebel attack.
August
6 – The United States of Stellaland is established when the Republics of Stellaland and Goshen unite.
12 – The last Quagga in the world dies in captivity at the Artis Magistra zoo in Amsterdam, making the species extinct.
February – Zakea Dolphin Mangoaela, Basotho folklorist and writer. (d. 1963)
9 August – Robert Moffat, Scottish Congregationalist missionary. Dies in Leigh near Tunbridge Wells, England.
5 May – Cape Western – Muizenberg to Kalkbaai, 1 mile 45 chains (2.5 kilometres).
14 May – Cape Western – Beaufort West to Victoria West Road, 80 miles 41 chains (129.6 kilometres).
15 October – Cape Eastern – Queenstown to Sterkstroom, 35 miles 28 chains (56.9 kilometres).
16 October – Cape Midland – Cradock to Colesberg, 126 miles 19 chains (203.2 kilometres).
Eighteen 3rd Class 4-4-0 tender passenger locomotives are delivered to the Cape Government Railways from Neilson and Company and placed in passenger service out of Cape Town, East London and Port Elizabeth respectively.
1883 in South Africa Wikipedia (Text) CC BY-SA
