1929 in South Africa

Events

June

• 14 – The National Party under James Barry Munnik Hertzog wins the South African general election with an outright majority for a second consecutive term.

August

• 26 – Union Airways Company is launched and becomes South Africa's first official commercial airline service.

Births

• Arthur Goldreich, South African-Israeli abstract painter and key figure in the anti-apartheid movement, is born in Johannesburg. (d. 2011)

Railways

Railway lines opened

• 3 April – Cape – Hermon to Porterville, 36 miles 10 chains (58.1 kilometres).^[1]
• 10 April – Cape – Ceres to Prince Alfred Hamlet, 6 miles 25 chains (10.2 kilometres).^[1]
• 16 April – Free State – Wesselsbron to Bultfontein, 35 miles 45 chains (57.2 kilometres).^[1]
• 31 July – Free State – Arlington to Lindley, 12 miles 26 chains (19.8 kilometres).^[1]
• 12 August – Transvaal – Boshoek to Middelwit, 58 miles 35 chains (94.0 kilometres).^[1]
• 31 August – Transvaal – Messina to Beitbridge, 10 miles 30 chains (16.7 kilometres).^[1]
• 14 November – Transvaal – Derwent to Stoffberg, 37 miles 73 chains (61.0 kilometres).^[1]
• 1 December – South West Africa – Seeis to Witvlei, 66 miles 41 chains (107.0 kilometres).^[1]

Locomotives

Six new steam locomotive types, four Cape gauge and one narrow gauge, enter service on the South African Railways (SAR):

• Fourteen purpose-built Class S 0-8-0 shunting steam locomotives.^{[2]:63–65[3]:80}
• Thirty-six Class 19A 4-8-2 Mountain type steam locomotives.^{[3]:70[4][5]:99}
• Five Class GDA 2-6-2+2-6-2 Double Prairie type Garratt articulated branchline locomotives.^{[2]:61–62[3]:90–91[6]}
• The first two of eight Class GL 4-8-2+2-8-4 Double Mountain type Garratt locomotives on the Durban-Cato Ridge section in Natal.^{[2]:58–62[5]:33[7]}
• A single self-contained steam Clayton Railmotor for low-volume passenger service.^[8]
• A single narrow gauge 0-6-0 tank locomotive, built to the same design as the DSWA Class Hc of 1907, on the Otavi Railway in South West Africa.^[3]:116

References