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.

The General Laws Amendment Act of 1964 (passed in 1963) or the 90-Day Act, commences on this day. It is dubbed the 90-Day Act as it provides for any person to be detained, without trial, for 90 days. Further, on the expiration of such, the person could be re-arrested under the same law for another 90 days, a process this new law allows to be repeated indefinitely. The Act also allows the state to retrospectively declare unlawful those organisations existing since 7 April 1960, and enables authorities to align Umkhonto We Sizwe with the African National Congress (ANC) and Poqo with the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC), both banned organisations. It also allows people convicted of political offences to be held in continuous detention after completion of their sentences, if Minister of Justice Vorster deems them a potential danger to the country or likely to promote Communist principles. This specific clause in the law becomes known as the "Sobukwe clause" as Robert Sobukwe becomes the only person on whom it is exercised. In 1964 the General Laws Amendment Act is changed to allow the Minister to lengthen banning orders before they expire. This law generates enormous protest and its critics argue it contravenes the rule of law and compromises the power of the justice system. Its stated intention is peace, yet it achieves the opposite. In a remarkable example of double-speak, Vorster outlined his motive for introducing the bill, saying it is "because the country is peaceful and because I want to keep it that way, I am introducing the bill timeously." In 1964, 671 people were charged with contravention of security laws and Vorster justifies this by declaring his actions necessary to protect the country against Communist conspiracy. On January 1965 the 90-day measure is suspended but 1 095 people are detained already.

It is announced that efforts by Britain's Foreign Secretary, Mr. Butler and Glasgow University to obtain permission from the South African Government for Albert Luthuli to leave Natal and be installed as Rector of Glasgow University have failed.

The Transvaal section of the Supreme Court dismissed an appeal by the African National Congress (ANC) Secretary-General Walter Sisulu against a six years sentence of imprisonment. Sisulu was arrested at Liliesleaf farm, Rivonia, under Section 17 Act 37/1963 and charged with sabotage and attempt to overthrow the government. The dismissal of his appeal meant that he would have to serve six years in prison.

On 11 December 1963 the first of the 'Bantustans' or 'homelands' came into existence when the Minister of Bantu Administration and Development, De Wet Nel, opened the Transkei Legislative Assembly at Umtata. Chief Kaiser Matanzima was installed as Chief Minister. With this development Transkei became partially self-governing. The cabinet, consisting of chief minister Matanzima and five other ministers, controlled the portfolios of finance, justice, the interior, agriculture and forestry, education, and roads and works. Defence, internal security, immigration, money and banking and several other departments remained under control of the South African government. The homelands: After South Africa became a Union, the government wanted Black and White people to live separately, so they set certain areas apart for Black people. Before the Union they were rural areas ruled by local chiefs. They came to be called 'Native Locations' and Black South Africans were systematically dispossessed of their land access via the 1913 Land Act. Later, under apartheid (after 1948) the division and control were more rigorous and these areas were called homelands. The idea was that the homelands would be like countries where the Black people could live and vote for their own governments, led by chiefs controlled by the apartheid state. As the White minority state expanded its divide and rule plan of control, there was a homeland for every major Black language in South Africa. These groups were called nations, and all Black South Africans were made citizens of one of these 'homeland' 'countries', regardless of where they had been born or where they now lived. The devastating forced removal of millions of now non-citizens of South Africa then became part of the history of our country.

On 11 February 1962, two actors, Athol Fugard, 29, from Port Elizabeth, author of the two - man play "The Blood knot" and his co-actor Zakes Mokae, 27, from Johannesburg arrived in Cape Town to stage a three hour play on "Colour-bar". "The Blood Knot" was the much talked about play in South Africa which had a cast of only two characters, a White and African. The play was staged at Labia Theatre, Cape Town on the evening of 12 February 1962. Fugard's play "The Blood Knot" was commissioned by a British publisher Andrew Deutsch to be staged at London's West End in May 1962. "The Blood Knot" had a colour theme, set in a shack at a Port Elizabeth township. The play was about two brothers, one (Fugard) light-skinned and a second brother (Mokae) was dark-skinned. It was a second indigenous South African play to be staged in the West End following "Singpost to Murder" by Monte Doyle. His first play was "No Good Friday" followed by his first internationally successful play "The Blood Knot" which led to his passport being withdrawn by Apartheid government.

Founding member and president of the Pan Africanist Congress, Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe, was sentenced to three years' imprisonment for incitement of Blacks to urge the repeal of pass laws. Sobukwe led a peaceful Black march to Orlando police station in Soweto on 21 March 1960, the same day a similar protest took place in Sharpeville, to hand over their passes to police officers, thereby deliberately courting arrest. Sobukwe was arrested and sentenced, but refused to appeal against his sentence, as he had refused the aid of an attorney, on the grounds that the court had no jurisdiction over him because it could not be considered either a court of law or a court of justice. After his prison term had expired, the new General Law Amendment Act (no. 37 of 1963) was passed to allow his imprisonment to be renewed annually at the sole discretion of the Minister of Justice. This procedure became known as the "Sobukwe clause" and went on for a further three years. He was the only one imprisoned under this clause. In 1969 he was put under house arrest in his home in Galeshewe, Kimberley, until his death.

The South West African People's Organisation (SWAPO) was founded in Windhoek, South West Africa (presently Namibia) on 19 April 1960 by Herman Toivo Ya Toivo. The party was originally formed to advocated immediate Namibian independence from South Africa and became the country's leading party following independence in 1990. SWAPO, led by one of its co-founders Sam Nujoma, began attacking the South African regime. It was essentially a military organisation, using guerrilla tactics to fight the South African forces. In 1966 SWAPO was recognised by the United Nations as the legitimate government of Namibia. SWAPO won the first independent election in 1989 and Sam Nujoma became the first president of Namibia.