23 – The Potchefstroom Teachers' College opens its doors.
September
3 – Jan Smuts becomes the 2nd Prime Minister of South Africa.
17 – German South West Africa is placed under South African administration.
November
7 – Inspired by Cape Town's daily Noon Gun Three Minute Pause, King George V institutes the Two Minute Silence, to be observed annually at the Eleventh Hour of the Eleventh Day of the Eleventh Month.
Births
3 March – Peter Abrahams, South African-born Jamaican novelist and journalist. (d. 2017)
8 December – Mary Benson, activist and author, is born in Pretoria. (d. 2000)
Deaths
19 March – Jack Hindon dies in Pretoria at the age of 44. (b. 1874)
27 August – Louis Botha, Boer general, Afrikaner statesman, first Prime Minister of South Africa. (b. 1862)
Railway lines opened
9 January – Natal – Deviation from Umlaas Road to Pentrich, 19 miles 19 chains (31.0 kilometres).
Locomotives
Two new Cape gauge and one narrow gauge locomotive types enter service on the South African Railways (SAR):
The first of sixty-seven Class 12A 4-8-2 Mountain type locomotives.
The first ten Class 16C 4-6-2 Pacific type passenger steam locomotives.
Three Class NG G11 2-6-0+0-6-2 Garratt articulated steam locomotives on the Avontuur narrow gauge line through the Langkloof, the first Garratt locomotives to enter service in South Africa.
