The South African government for the first time allowed 20 local journalists, five correspondents of international news agencies and two official photographers to visit the prison on Robben Island where 370 men, convicted under security legislation, were held. On the island, 12km north east of Cape Town, political prisoners of the anti-apartheid movement were kept together with hardened criminals. Though Robben Island has been used as prison and a place where people were isolated, banished and exiled to for more than 300 years, the new maximum-security prison was established in the early 1960s. The living conditions were, particularly in the early years, extremely bad. Prisoners had to labour in the quarry, were not dressed sufficiently and had to sleep on thin straw mats on the stone floor. Through strikes and endless protests, more humane conditions were implemented in 1971, when the prisoners were also allowed to study. During this visit in 1977, material conditions were considered in general to be satisfactory, but the lack of contact with the outside world was very severe.

On 27 June 1976, almost two weeks after the Soweto Uprising on 16 June, Kenneth Hlaku Rachidi, the National President of the Black People's Convention (BPC), announced that the riots had ushered in a new era of political consciousness. The Soweto Uprising, which was commemorated last week with Youth Day, was the result of increasing opposition to apartheid amongst the black youth of South Africa. In particular, students were protesting against apartheid laws that restricted and dictated their education. The black youth had been empowered by the ideology of Black Consciousness, which aimed to psychologically mobilise the oppressed population of South Africa. The ideology of Black Consciousness manifested itself in the establishment of the BPC, which was founded by leaders of the South African Student Organisation (SASO). Rachidi joined the BPC in 1972, and was elected President in 1975. His views, as expressed in the title, soon attracted the attention of the South African Police, and he was arrested and detained without charge in Modderbee prison until 1978. References: Kalley, J.A.; Schoeman, E. & Andor, L.E. (eds) (1999) Southern African Political History: a chronology of key political events from independence to mid-1997. Westport: Greenwood. Kenneth Hlaku Rachidi [online] Available at: sahistory.org.za [Accessed 18 June 2009]

On 24 June 1976 the Principal's office in Hlengisi Primary, Nyanga, outside Cape Town is burnt down. The broader context of this is that on 16 June 1976 school children in Soweto, near Johannesburg, rose in protest against the oppressive new Bantu Education policy of Afrikaans as a teaching medium in their schools. Riots raged in the township for 3 days and quickly spread throughout the country. In Natal the University of Zululand's library and administration buildings were destroyed, while 33 people died in protests in Port Elizabeth. Cape Town also saw its share of violence, and by the end of September 92 people had died.

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.