1969 in South Africa

Incumbents

• State President: Jacobus Johannes Fouché

Events

April

• 14-16 – A summit meeting of the leaders of East and Central African States in Lusaka results in the issue of the Lusaka Manifesto on 16 April.
• 17 – Dorothy Fisher is the first woman and the fifth person to receive a heart transplant under Dr. Christiaan Barnard.
• 25 to 1 May – The African National Congress holds its first national consultative conference in Morogoro, Tanzania. It becomes known as the "Morogoro Conference".

May

• 1 – The Department of Intelligence and Security of the African National Congress is established under Moses Mabhida.

June

• 4-10 – P.W. Botha, Minister of Defence, visits France accompanied by General R.C. Hiemstra, Chief of the Defence Force, Lieutenant-General W.P. Louw, Chief of the Army and Lieutenant-General J.P. Verster, Chief of the Air Force.

Unknown date

• Dorothy Nyembe is convicted of defeating the ends of justice by harbouring members of Umkhonto we Sizwe and is sentenced to 15 years imprisonment in Barberton Prison.
• South Africa's Atomic Energy Board creates a commission to evaluate the technical and economic aspects of peaceful nuclear explosives for use in mines.

Births

• 5 March – Derek Crookes, cricketer.
• 27 July – Jonathan Neil Rhodes, cricketer, is born in Pietermaritzburg
• 25 September – Wessel Johannes (Hansie) Cronje, all-rounder cricketer, is born in Bloemfontein.

Deaths

• 5 March – Reuben Tholakele Caluza, Zulu folk music composer and choir master, dies in Durban.

Railways

Locomotives

• The South African Railways places the first of twenty Class 6E1, Series 1 electric locomotives in mainline service.^[1][2]

References