March
13 – De Beers Consolidated Mines Ltd. is founded in Kimberley.
October
30 – Cecil Rhodes and the British South Africa Company obtains Matabeleland from Lobengula in the Rudd Concession, named after Charles Rudd.
Unknown date
The Eastern Province Rugby Union is founded.
The town of Amersfoort is established around a Dutch Reformed Church built in 1876.
26 April – William Wellington Gqoba, author, dies at Lovedale near Alice.
9 July – Sir Jan Brand, 4th president of the Orange Free State. (b. 1823)
Two new 3 ft 6 in (1,067 mm) Cape gauge locomotive types enter service on the Natal Government Railways (NGR):
The locomotive named Havelock, built in the Durban workshops and known as Hairy Mary during the Second Boer War, is the first locomotive to be designed and built in South Africa.
The first five of 100 Class D 4-8-2 tank locomotives, the first in the world to have the Mountain type wheel arrangement.
