March
23 – Ex-regent Mshiyeni, uncle of Zulu King Cyprian Bhekuzulu kaSolomon, warns the Zulu people not to participate in the Defiance Campaign. In the press the King repeatedly denies having any views on the matter.
April
6 – The African National Congress, South African Indian Congress and the Coloured People's Congress launch the Defiance Campaign against apartheid.
6 – The Van Riebeeck Festival is held in Cape Town, marking the 300th anniversary of the landing by Jan van Riebeeck at Table Bay.
May
3 – The first regular jet flight between South Africa and Britain is started with the arrival of a De Havilland Comet with 36 passengers at Johannesburg.
October
8 – A uranium plant operated by West Rand Consolidated Mines, the first in the world to extract uranium as a by-product of the gold refining process, opens at Millsite near Krugersdorp.
12 – The first uranium is worked at the West Rand plant.
Unknown date
Nelson Mandela is given a 9-month suspended sentence and is forbidden to leave Johannesburg for the next 6 months.
26 April – Popo Simon Molefe, co-founder of the Azanian People's Organisation, is born in Sophiatown, Johannesburg.
10 May – Ruben Xulu, artist, is born deaf at the Hiabisa mission station near St Lucia.
12 May – Membathisi Mdladlana, member of Parliament and government minister, is born in Keiskammahoek.
26 June – Simon Mann, British Army officer, security expert and mercenary is born.
23 October – Antjie Krog, poet, novelist, playwright and journalist, is born in Kroonstad.
28 March – Sir Fraser Russell, Governor of Southern Rhodesia (born 1876).
18 December – Free State: Odendaalsrus to Allanridge, 8 miles 63 chains (14.1 kilometres).
Two new Cape gauge locomotive types enter service on the South African Railways (SAR):
The first of one hundred Class S2 0-8-0 shunting steam locomotives.
The first of forty Class 4E electric locomotives on the mainline from Cape Town across the Hex River rail pass to Touws River in the Karoo.
