1881 in South Africa

Events

January

• 28 January - The Boers defeat the British in the Battle of Laing's Nek during the First Boer War

February

• 8 February - The Boers defeat the British in the Battle of Schuinshoogte during the First Boer War
• 27 February - The Boers defeat the British in the Battle of Majuba Hill during the First Boer War

March

• 21 March - Peace is declared and Britain recognizes the South African Republic
• 26 March - Reinhold Gregorowski is appointed a judge in the Orange Free State at the age of 25

August

• 3 August - Pretoria Convention peace treaty signed, officially ending the war between the Boers and the Britain

Unknown date

• The Tswana-Kora wars break out with white mercenary involvement
• The town of Roburnia is established as the capital of the Republic of New Scotland, it was renamed to Amsterdam in 1882
• Gold is discovered in the Barberton area

Births

• 23 April - Claude Pagdett Carter, a South African Test cricket player is born in Durban
• 28 May - Danël Francois Malherbe, novelist, poet and dramatist, is born in Dal Josafat, Cape Colony
• November - Benjamin Jennings Caddy, a militant trade unionist who is regarded as the doyen of the trade union movement in South Africa, is born in Australia

Deaths

• 21 April - Jacobus Nicolaas Boshoff, the 2nd president of the Orange Free State, dies in Weston, Pietermaritzburg at the age of 73
• 9 December - Thomas François Burgers, the 4th president of the South African Republic, dies at Richmond, Transvaal at the age of 47