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EventSA artist, Bongiwe Dhlomo, is born
Bongiwe (Bongi) Dhlomo-Mautloa, South African artist, was born in Vryheid, Natal. She grew up in Bergville, matriculated in Ladysmith and obtained a National…
EventP.W. Botha and Kenneth Kaunda in a historic meeting
President Kenneth Kaunda of Zambia met the Prime Minister, P.W. Botha, in a mobile home that had been set down in the middle of the African bush across South…
EventGriffiths Mxenge is murdered
Griffiths Mxenge, an African National Congress (ANC) veteran and apartheid activist, was assassinated and his body was severely mutilated in an act of barbaric…
EventJournalists’ first visit to Robben Island
The South African government for the first time allowed 20 local journalists, five correspondents of international news agencies and two official photographers…
EventResolute Treurnicht rejects waiving language policy
Despite the indications of African unrest at Soweto schools being noticed by government authorities on 4 June, who reported it to the Minister of Bantu…
EventPAC leader Robert Sobukwe is released
Pan-Africanist Congress leader, Robert Sobukwe, was arrested after the Sharpeville anti-pass campaign of 1960 and harshly sentenced to three years in prison…
EventEquatorial Guinea gains Independence from Spain
The colonial history of Equatorial Guinea dates back to 1471 when Portuguese explorers descended on the country. On their way to India, Portuguese explorers…
EventLucas Mangope, Bophuthatswana homeland leader is deposed
On 13 March 1994, Lucas Mangope was ousted as President of the homeland of Bophuthatswana. Mangope came to power in Bophuthatswana in 1966 during the reign of…
EventElephant poaching reaches an all time high
While African elephants have been hunted for several centuries, the exploitation of elephant herds on a massive scale began in the 1970s. Organized gangs of…
EventKhotso House is bombed
The South African Council of Churches (SACC) headquarters, Khotso House, based in Johannesburg, was bombed for harbouring anti-apartheid groups a year after a…
EventCarte Blanche is denied permission to quote Oliver Tambo
On 30 January 1987 the Minister of Law and Order issued a message to the newspapers denying Carte Blanche, an investigative television programme permission to…
EventBishop Tutu receives Martin Luther King Award
Bishop Desmond Tutu received the Martin Luther King Jr Award for Non-Violence for his commitment and role during the struggle against apartheid in 1986. …
EventWorld Aids Day
Following the January 1988 meeting of Health Ministers in London, a decision was taken that 1 December would annually be observed as World Aids Day. The step…
EventBafana Bafana loses to Germany
South African soccer team Bafana Bafana played against the German national soccer team in an international friendly match, in Dusseldorf in Germany. The game…
EventHelen Suzman is born
Politician and Anti-Apartheid activist, Helen Suzman, was born in Germiston, South Africa. During her 36 years in Parliament she defended the right to freedom…
EventFirst aeroplane flight in Kimberley breaks the non-stop flight record
John Weston, a civil engineer, began the construction of his own aeroplane in 1907 at Brandfort, in the Free State. This was the first South African built…
EventBoers occupying Magagabe Hill shell Rhodesian positions at Basuto Kop
The action that culminated with the Boers shelling Rhodesian positions at Basuto Kop on 16 February 1900 can be traced in part by Rhodesian fears that the…
EventChief Malaboch is taken prisoner
In April 1894, Chief Malaboch (Mmaleboho, Mmaleboxo) of the Bahananwa (Xananwa) people refused to leave his traditional mountain kingdom of Blouberg as ordered…
EventChristoffel Coetzee de Villiers (37), compiler of South African genealogical registers, dies
Location: back to this day in history search archive Christoffel Coetzee de Villiers was born on 10 March 1850 in Swellendam, in the Cape Colony (now Western…
EventFirst Tramway Company in Cape Town commences operations, with a horse
Public transport in South Africa commenced in Cape Town in May 1801, when a weekly coach service from Cape Town to Simon's Town was announced. Many years later…
EventUniversity of Pretoria is established
On 10 February 1908 a new department of the Transvaal University College (T.U.C.), situated in Johannesburg, started its classes in Kya Rosa, a house in…
EventElsa, the lioness made famous by Joy Adamson’s book Born Free, dies in Kenya
Elsa the lioness was one of three orphaned lions whose mother was killed in self defence by George Adamson. Adamson was a wildlife conservationist based in…
EventInternational Year of Mobilisation for Sanctions against South Africa is launched
The United Nations Special Committee against Apartheid (originally called the Special Committee on the Policies of Apartheid of the Government of the Republic…
EventZola Budd, former SA athlete and World Record holder, is born
Zolla Budd was born to an Afrikaans family on 26 May 1966 in Bloemfontein. She was one of five children. Budd was especially close to her older sister Jenny…
EventThe United Nations adopts a resolution establishing an eleven member United Nations Council for South West Africa
The United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution establishing an eleven member United Nations Council for South West Africa. Their task was to…
EventMbhazima Shilowa, former premier of Gauteng, is born
Mbhazima Samuel (Sam) Shilowa, was born in Olifantshoek in the Transvaal (now Limpopo Province.) After High School, Shilowa moved to Johannesburg, where he…
EventRev. Michael Scott besiege the UN for justice regarding Herero people
On 29 December 1948, a well known human rights activist Rev. Michael Guthrie Scott, who lived in South Africa, besieged the United Nations(UN) for justice…
PlaceQueen’s Tavern, 16 Stamford Hill Road, Durban
Built as a gentleman's club in 1894, this is one of Durban’s few remaining links with its Colonial past. It is the oldest licenced premises in the City, its…
PlaceGreen Lodge, 81 St George Street, Bloemfontein
The Orange River Convention (sometimes also called the Bloemfontein Convention) was a convention whereby the United Kingdom formally recognised the…
PlaceWhite Horse Stones, Naval Hill, Bloemfontein
Also known as Witperd Klip. The stones were laid during the South African War by members of the Wiltshire Regiment who were then Stationed at Naval Hill. An…