1914 in South Africa

Events

• South Africa declares war on Germany
• The Clan Stuart, a steamship is blown ashore between Glencairn and Simonstown in the Cape Province
• Sydney Buxton, 1st Earl Buxton is appointed the 2nd Governor-General of the Union of South Africa
• The Kimberley mine or "Big Hole" is closed
• South Africa's exasperated whites agree to many of the Indians demands. Discriminatory taxes on Indian traders are abolished, the legality of non-Christian marriages is recognized and the continued immigration of free Indians is permitted.
• A new Cape Point Lighthouse at Cape Point is built
• 8 January - A railway strike is declared in the Transvaal and Orange Free State
• 23 April - The Afrikaans language receives official recognition when Cornelis Jacobus Langenhoven addresses the English caucus of the Cape Provincial Council.
• 1 July - The National Party is formed in Bloemfontein
• 19 December - Mahatma Gandhi departs from Durban for Bombay

Births

• 3 July - Marmaduke Thomas St. John Pattle, World War II fighter pilot is born in Butterworth, Eastern Cape
• 9 December - Shmuel Katz, Israeli writer, historian and journalist is born in South Africa (d. 2008).

Deaths

• 15 September - General Koos de la Rey, a former commander in the Boer War, was shot dead after he failed to stop at a police roadblock