29 January – Doctors Without Borders, an international humanitarian organisation, begins importing a cheap, generic version of patented AIDS drugs into South Africa in a direct defiance to South Africa's patent laws
March – Sivan Pillay, Ed Jordan, Nkhensani Mangani and Karl Anderson are appointed as the first judges of major reality show Coca Cola Popstars, which yields two new pop groups, winners 101 and runners-up Afro Z
April
25 April – Mark Shuttleworth gained worldwide fame as the second self-funded spaceflight participant
27 June – Two South African Air ForceAtlas Oryx helicopters flying from the South African research ship Agulhas took emergency food supplies and evacuated 21 Russian scientists from the German-owned Magdalena Oldendorff which was trapped in ice off Antarctica since 16 June
July
15 July – Nelson Mandela calls on government and business leaders worldwide to find ways to provide access to treatment to those people living with HIV/AIDS
August
8 August – The government announces the go-ahead for an anti-retroviral roll-out plan
9 August – Ed Fagan leds a $50bn class action suit by a few apartheid-era victims against international firms and banks who profited from dealings with apartheid government
25 August – The Medicines Control Council threatens to de-register Nevirapine unless further studies and appropriate documentation can show its efficacy in the prevention of mother to child transmission of HIV
September
15 September – Johan Pretorius, Boeremag member, is arrested and charged when he was found with a truckload of weapons and explosives in Lichtenburg
20 September – Boeremag members, Dirk Hanekom and Henk van Zyl, are arrested in Memel, Free State but only Hanekom is charged
22 September – The South African Air Force Museum's only flying T-6G Harvard crashes into power lines during a flypast at the Africa Aerospace and Defence 2002 being held at AFB Waterkloof, Pretoria. Pilot Col Jeff Earle escaped with minor injuries.
October
10 October – State President of South AfricaThabo Mbeki states that AIDS drugs are dangerously toxic to people and questions whether HIV or poverty is the true cause of Aids