June
29 – South Africa introduces its apartheid policy.
October
30 – B.J. Schoeman announces in Johannesburg that the NP would carry the apartheid policy through "notwithstanding what serious economic problems it might cause".
November
1 – Seretse Khama and his British wife Ruth are declared forbidden by the Union government in South Africa.
December
16 – The Voortrekker Monument is officially opened in Pretoria.
Unknown date
The University of Pretoria establishes the Graduate School of Management (GSM), the first MBA programme to be launched outside of North America.
The Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act is passed.
The South African Post Office begins to force Europeans and non-Europeans to stand in separate queues in post offices and serve them at different counters.
Zulus riot against Indian-owned businesses in Durban.
27 January – Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, politician.
29 January – Eugene Alexander de Kock, South African Police colonel, torturer, and assassin, is born in George
23 May – Estian Calitz, academic, is born in George.
2 June – Michael Lapsley, Anglican priest and social activist, is born in New Zealand.
21 June – Leonard Tshela Mohapi Matsoso, artist, is born in Pimville, Soweto.
23 July – Clive Edward Butler Rice, cricketer, is born in Johannesburg
28 November – Nosimo Zisiwe Beauty Balindlela, Premier of the Provincial Government of the Eastern Cape.
15 December – Fanie Pretorius, founder Member of Die Grafsteensangers, is born in Pretoria.
4 May – Hendrik Adolph Mulder, poet and Afrikaans literary critic, dies in Grahamstown.
The South African Railways places the first of one hundred Class 24 2-8-4 Berkshire type branchline steam locomotives in service.
1949 in South Africa Wikipedia (Text) CC BY-SA
