1979 in South Africa

Incumbents

• State President: Balthazar Johannes Vorster (starting 4 June), Marais Viljoen (until 19 June)

Events

January

• 8 – South Africa and Lesotho sign a monetary agreement.
• 14 – Police clashes with Umkhonto we Sizwe guerrillas on a farm near Zeerust, one is arrested while six escape across the Botswana border.
• 23 – A bomb explodes near the New Canada railway station in Soweto.
• 24 – Large quantity of explosives are found and defused on the railway line between Fort Beaufort and King William's Town.

April

• Explosives are discovered and defused on railway line near Soweto.

May

• 5 – Insurgents open fire in the Moroka Police Station's charge office killing one policeman and wounding three others, as well as three civilians.
• 29 – Bishop Abel Muzorewa becomes the transitional Prime Minister of Zimbabwe Rhodesia.

June

• 4 – Marais Viljoen becomes State President of South Africa for the second time.
• Explosives are discovered and defused on railway line in the Eastern Transvaal.

September

• 22 – A Vela satellite detects a double flash signal in the southern Atlantic Ocean. This is widely believed to be a South African and Israeli nuclear test, denied by South Africa.

November

• Insurgents open fire and hurl grenades into the charge office of Orlando Police Station, Soweto. Two policemen are killed and two wounded.
• Grenades are thrown into the home of Special Branch policeman, Lt Magezi Ngobeni, and five children are wounded.

December

• A bomb explodes and damages the railway line near Alice.
• A bomb explodes at the Sasol Oil Refineries and cause massive structural damage.

Unknown date

• The National Council of Lawyers for Human Rights is established.
• The African National Congress's Special Operations is set up to undertake high-profile acts of sabotage on key economic installations. This structure reports directly to Oliver Tambo.
• The African National Congress' Nova Catengue Training Camp is destroyed in an aerial bombardment by the South African Air Force.
• The South African Defence Force invade southern Zambia in Operation Safraan.

Births

• 14 February – Wesley Moodie, tennis player
• 23 June – Marilyn Agliotti, female field hockey player.

Deaths

• February – Sergeant Benjamin Letlako, a Police Special Branch member, is shot dead in Katlehong.
• 12 June – David Sibeko, director of Foreign Affairs of the Pan Africanist Congress and representative to the United Nations, is shot dead in Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania. (b. 1938)
• 30 April – Andries Albertus Pienaar, pen name Sangiro, dies on his farm Panfontein near Bloemhof. (b. 1894)
• 10 November – Harry Hart (74), South African athlete. (b. 1905)

Railways

Locomotives

• The South African Railways places the first of 105 Class 6E1, Series 8 electric locomotives in mainline service.^[1][2]

Sports

Motorsport

• 3 March – The South African Grand Prix takes place at Kyalami.
• Jody Scheckter becomes Formula One World Champion.

References