See also: 1977 in South Africa, other events of 1978, 1979 in South Africa and the Timeline of South African history.
Contents |
Events
January
- Former African National Congress member, Steve Mtshali who turned state witness in various trials is shot and wounded
February
- An unexploded bomb "capable of destroying a 22 storey building" is found in a Johannesburg office block and defused
- 2 February - Guerrillas attack the Daveyton police station
- Kaiser Matanzima breaks all diplomatic ties with South Africa and announces that all South African Defence Force members seconded to the Transkei Army will leave Transkei by 31 March
- The Attorney-General of the Eastern Cape states that he will not prosecute any police involved in the arrest and detention of Black Consciousness Movement leader Steve Biko
March
- 10 March - Bomb explodes outside the offices of the Bantu Affairs building in Port Elizabeth. One civilian is killed and three injured
April
- 14 April - Former deputy president of the African National Congress in the Transvaal, Abel Mthembu turns state witness at the Pretoria ANC trial
May
- 4 May - South African Defence Force airborne raid on Cassinga, Angola in the Operation Reindeer. See: Battle of Cassinga
- Ishmael Mkhabela and Lybon Mabasa, two members of the Azanian People's Organisation are arrested in Soweto
August
- 21 August - Marais Viljoen becomes 5th State President of South Africa
September
- Black September episode - The African National Congress attempts to kill about 500 cadres by poisoning their food because an enemy agent had escaped the screening procedures and could not be identified. [1]
- 29 September - PW Botha succeeds Balthazar Johannes Vorster as 9th Prime Minister of South Africa
October
December
- December - Bomb explodes at the Soweto Community Council offices
Unknown date
- South African Defence Forces attack several South-West Africa People's Organisation bases in Angola during Operation Bruilof
- The South African Defence Force's South African 32 Battalion move into southern Angola to flush out South-West Africa People's Organisation members during Operation Seiljag
- George Bizos becomes a senior member of the Johannesburg Bar
- South Africa's Atomic Energy Corporation built South Africa's first nuclear weapon device
Sport
Motorsport
- 4 March - The South African Grand Prix, is held at Kyalami
Births
- 3 April – John Smit, Springboks rugby player and captain of the 2007 Rugby World Cup champions
Deaths
- Sewsunker "Papwa" Sewgolum, legendary golfer, dies
- 8 January - Richard Turner, activist and academic, is shot dead at his Durban home
- 12 January - Monty Naicker, a medical doctor and prominent politician, dies in Durban
- Philemon (Duma) Nokwe, the first African advocate of the Supreme Court of Transvaal and politician, dies
- 4 June - Benjamin John Peter Tyamzashe, Xhosa composer, choir conductor and organist, dies in East London
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