5 May – 6 November – South African 7th Motorised Brigade and South African Air Force join the allied forces in Operation Ironclad to capture Madagascar.
29 November – Blue Star Line cargo liner MV Dunedin Star runs aground on the Skeleton Coast of South West Africa.
12 April – Jacob Gedleyihlekisa Zuma, African National Congress president and 3rd post-apartheid President of South Africa, is born in Nkandla, KwaZulu-Natal.
22 May – Zweledinga Pallo Jordan, politician.
24 May – Aaron Bacher, cricket administrator.
18 June – Thabo Mvuyelwa Mbeki, 2nd post-apartheid President of South Africa.
28 June – Martin Thembisile Hani, leader of the South African Communist Party and chief of staff of Umkhonto we Sizwe, was born in Cofimvaba, Cape Province
25 April – John Robinson Royston, soldier and farmer, dies in Durban at the age of 81.
16 June – John Everitt Frost, World War II fighter pilot, is reported missing in action in North Africa.
1942 in South Africa Wikipedia (Text) CC BY-SA
