Three days after the 1976 Students' Revolt the Government banned 123 people for their involvement and put a nation wide ban on public meetings. The protest was triggered by the announcement that Afrikaans would be used as a medium of instruction in Black schools. This failed to curtail mass action campaigns and the revolt spread across the country marking a turning point in the liberation struggle of South Africa.

The Nationalist party government announced its intention to consolidate the total number of separate 'homeland' areas from 113 to 36. The homelands were officially instituted in the 1950s as a form of apartheid separate development and a way to strip Black South Africans of their South African citizenship. The argument from the point of view of the Apartheid government was that Black South African people would be given the benefit of being able to self govern. The reality was that they became impoverished as cheap labour pools ruled by chiefs controlled by the apartheid state.

In a dramatic move, Minister of Defence P. W. Botha announced the replacement of South African police by the South African Defence Force on the northern borders of South West Africa (now Namibia). Botha believed that the military forces would be able to resist the pressure exerted by SWAPO.

South Africa suffered heavily in the international sports arena as result of its apartheid policy. Prior to the Tokyo Olympic games in 1964, South Africa was banned from taking part in the games by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) after serious threats by African nations and the Soviet countries. On 15 May 1970, the IOC extended South Africa's ban, resulting in the country's exclusion from the 1972 games in Munich, Germany until the 1996 Atlanta games.

S.P. Botha, Minister of Water Affairs, proposes new schemes to ease the Western Cape's water supply problem During his opening of the Cape Show on 4 March 1970, Minister of Water Affairs S.P. Botha said that several water projects such as the Voelvlei Dam were undertaken and new schemes like Riversonderend-Berg River Project were to be started to ease the Western Cape's water supply problem. Botha said "It is however, already clear that many supplementary schemes will have to be tackled long before the end of this century in order to store the water, distribute and use it more efficiently." Four decades from the day Botha made his statement, a worse drought struck the Central Karoo town of Beaufort West in the Western Cape. The drought forced inhabitants to produce millions of litters of recycled sewage water a day. The Beaufort West's major water reservoir, Gamka Dam remained dry. The incident led the City of Cape Town into partnering with Henred - SA Roadtankers, a local company based in Bellville that manufactures water tankers. They collectively transported 150 000 litres of potable water to Beaufort West on 15 December 2010.

Prime Minister B J Vorster announces that White entrepreneurs will be given long-standing contracts in the 'homelands' to speed up economic development. This effectively further disadvantages the many already disenfranchised Blacks who had their South African citizenship cancelled, by actively encouraging economic exploitation of them, based on their race and their need for work while restricted to a labour pool 'homeland'.

On 3 December 1967, South African doctor, Dr Christiaan (Chris) Barnard, performed the world's first human to human heart transplant at Groote Schuur Hospital, Cape Town. This extraordinary event which pushed the boundaries of science into the dawn of a new medical epoch took place inside Charles Saint Theatre at Groote Schuur Hospital. After a decade of heart surgery, Barnard and his gifted cardiothoracic team of thirty (which included his brother Marius), were well equipped to perform the nine hour long operation. The recipient was Louis Washkansky, a fifty three year old grocer with a debilitating heart condition. Washkansky received the heart of Denise Darvall, a young woman who was run over by a car on 2 December and had been declared brain dead after suffering serious brain damage. Her father, Edward Darvall agreed to the donation of his daughter's heart and kidneys. The operation started shortly after midnight on a Saturday night and was completed the next morning just before 6 a.m. when the new heart in the chest of Louis Washkansky was electrically shocked into action. After regaining consciousness he was able to talk and on occasion, to walk but his condition deteriorated and died of pneumonia eighteen days after the heart transplant. Groote Schuur Hospital has set up the 'Heart of Cape Town Museum' which honours those who played a leading role in the surgical feat. Theatres A and B are the orginal theatres and have been recreated to display an authentic representation of the ground breaking operation.

Minister of Defence, PW Botha disclosed that South Africa's northern borders are protected by a radar complex constituting an early warning system, and that the entire coastline was to be covered by the Decca navigational system costing $8.4m The statement by P.W. Botha regarding the acquisition of advanced radar and navigation equipment emphasized Apartheid South Africa's military might, especially to those involved in the liberations struggle.

In early 1966 John Lennon was reading about Christianity and when he was interviewed by Maureen Cleave for the London Evening Stadard on 4 March, said: "Christianity will go. It will vanish and shrink. I needn't argue with that; I'm right and I will be proved right. We're more popular than Jesus now; I don't know which will go first - rock 'n' roll or Christianity. Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. It's them twisting it that ruins it for me." The comment was typically provocative and was ignored in Britain. Only five months later when an American teen magazine called Datebook reprinted part of the quote on its front cover did controversy erupt. In the piously conservative southern and Midwest states of the US, Beatles records and memorabilia were burned, radio stations refused to play their songs and concerts were cancelled. In apartheid South Africa the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) joined in the conservative condemnation and banned the playing of Beatles songs. In 1965 the Beatles had 2 Top 20 hit singles on Springbok Radio, 1 in 1964, and 2 in 1963. The greatest hit of the 1966 Springbok Hit Parade was Nancy Sinatra's These Boots are made for Walking. Other hits of the year included Sgt Barry Sadler's The Ballad of the Green Berets and the Sandpiper's Guantanamera. Five South African artists features in the 1966 Top 20 list: Virginia Lee (8; Darling it's Wonderful), Dickie Loader (9; Sea of Heartbreak), Des Lindberg (11; Die Gezoem van die Bye), A-Cads (17; Hungry for Love), and Four Jacks and a Jill (20; Jimmy Come Lately).

Gary Player won the US Open golf tournament and became the fourth winner to earn all four top-pro golf titles. Player, from South Africa, was the first non-American to achieve this feat. Player was born in Johannesburg in 1935. While countryman Bobby Locke preceded him to the PGA Tour, South African Player was the first international star to build a long-term presence on the PGA Tour, while also playing around the world. Along the way, Player won tournaments in 27 consecutive years, and 163 tournaments total worldwide, he is regarded as one of the greatest players in golf history. His first major championship win came at the 1959 British Open, and he was the first non-American to win the Masters when he did so in 1961. The PGA Championship followed in 1962, and when Player won the U.S. Open in 1965 he became, at the time, only the third winner of the career grand slam and the fourth winner to earn all four top-pro golf titles. Off the course, Player worked behind-the-scenes to improve the racial situation in South Africa, which for most of his life existed under the shroud of apartheid. He founded The Player Foundation to promote education among his country's underprivileged, and the foundation built the Blair Atholl Schools in Johannesburg, which has educational facilities for more than 500 students.