State President: Nicolaas Johannes Diederichs
January
8 – The railway line near Soweto is maliciously damaged.
February
1 – KwaZulu is granted self-governance.
24 – A bomb explodes at the Daveyton Police Station, causing only superficial damage.
March
5 – British Formula One racing driver Tom Pryce dies in a freak accident during the South African Grand Prix at Kyalami when his car strikes marshal Frederik Jansen van Vuuren, who is also killed.
7 – A Pretoria restaurant is destroyed by a bomb.
April
1 – Pik Botha, South Africa's ambassador in the United States of America, is appointed as Minister of Foreign Affairs.
June
4 – Father Smangaliso Mkhatshwa, Secretary of the South African Catholic Bishops' Conference, is served a 5-year restriction order.
15 – Monty Motlaung and Solomon Mahlangu, two Umkhonto we Sizwe cadres, are arrested by police in a warehouse in Goch Street, Johannesburg. Two bystanders are killed during the arrest, Motlaung ends up brain damaged and Mahlangu was later tried and hanged.
29 – The United Party is renamed the New Republic Party.
July
15 – The railway line at Umlazi in Durban is maliciously damaged.
29 – The "Antipolis", a Greek oil tanker, runs aground on the rocks near Victoria Road in Oudekraal, Cape Town, while being towed to a wrecker's yard.
August
A Soviet surveillance satellite detects South Africa's nuclear test preparations and alerts the United States.
Black Consciousness leader Steve Biko is detained for breaking a banning order.
September
12 – Steve Biko dies in police detention in Pretoria.
23 – The Netherlands suspends its cultural agreement with South Africa.
November
4 – United Nations Security Council Resolution 418, placing a mandatory arms embargo against South Africa, is passed.
25 – Fourteen people are injured when a bomb explodes at the Carlton Centre.
30 – A bomb explodes on a Pretoria-bound train.
30 – A whites only general election is held. The National Party wins.
The railway at Dunswart (Boksburg) and Apex (Benoni) is maliciously damaged and a train driver is slightly injured.
December
12 – Guerrillas attack the Germiston police station.
14 – A bomb explodes at the Benoni railway station.
16 – The Venpet-Venoil collision between two supertankers occurs off the coast of Cape St. Francis.
22 – An unexploded bomb is found in OK Bazaars in Roodepoort.
Unknown date
Former members of the United Party join the Progressive Reform Party, which is renamed the Progressive Federal Party.
Cedric Mayson, a Methodist minister, is banned for 5 years.
11 May – Victor Matfield, Springbok rugby player.
12 November – Benni McCarthy, soccer striker.
12 November – Susan Wessels, field hockey player.
17 November – Ryk Neethling, swimmer.
8 March – Moses Kottler, sculptor, dies in Johannesburg at the age of 81.
29 April – Marimuthu Pragalathan Naicker, journalist and anti-apartheid activist, dies at the age of 56 from suspected heart failure on a flight from London to Berlin.
9 September – Leonard Mandla Nkosi, a special branch policeman who was a former African National Congress member, is murdered.
12 September – Steve Biko dies in police detention.
The South African Railways places the first of 150 Class 6E1, Series 7 electric locomotives in mainline service.
5 March – The South African Grand Prix takes place at Kyalami.
1977 in South Africa Wikipedia (Text) CC BY-SA
