1978 in South Africa

Incumbents

• State President:
  • until 21 August: Nicolaas Johannes Diederichs
  • 21 August-10 October: Marais Viljoen
  • starting 10 October: Balthazar Johannes Vorster

Events

January

• Former African National Congress (ANC) member Steve Mtshali, who turned state witness in various trials, is shot and wounded.

February

• 2 – Guerrillas attack the Daveyton police station.
• 2 – Kaiser Matanzima breaks all diplomatic ties with South Africa and announces that all South African Defence Force members seconded to the Transkei Army will leave Transkei by 31 March.
• 2 – The Attorney-General of the Eastern Cape states that he will not prosecute any policemen involved in the arrest and detention of Black Consciousness Movement leader Steve Biko.
• An unexploded bomb "capable of destroying a 22 storey building" is found in a Johannesburg office block and defused.

March

• 10 – A bomb explodes outside the offices of the Bantu Affairs building in Port Elizabeth. One civilian is killed and three injured.

April

• 14 – Abel Mthembu, former deputy president of the ANC in the Transvaal, turns state witness at the Pretoria ANC trial.

May

• 4 – The South African Defence Force launches an airborne attack on Cassinga in Angola during Operation Reindeer.
• 4 – Ishmael Mkhabela and Lybon Mabasa, two members of the Azanian People's Organisation, are arrested in Soweto.

August

• 21 – Marais Viljoen becomes the 5th State President of South Africa.
• 23 – Operation Safraan, an SADF retaliatory raid in Zambia.

September

• 29 – Pieter Willem Botha succeeds Balthazar Johannes Vorster as 9th Prime Minister of South Africa.^[1]:53
• The African National Congress attempts to kill about 500 of its own cadres by poisoning their food because an enemy agent had escaped the screening procedures and could not be identified.^[2]

October

• 10 – Balthazar Johannes Vorster becomes the 6th State President of South Africa.
• 31 – The South African Railways sets a still unbeaten world rail speed record.^{[3]:128–129[4]:56–57}

December

• A bomb explodes at the Soweto Community Council offices.

Unknown date

• The South African Defence Force (SADF) attacks several South-West Africa People's Organisation (SWAPO) bases in Angola during Operation Bruilof.
• The SADF's 32 Battalion moves into southern Angola to flush out SWAPO members during Operation Seiljag.
• George Bizos becomes a senior member of the Johannesburg Bar.
• South Africa's Atomic Energy Corporation builds South Africa's first nuclear weapon device.

Births

• 22 March – Heinz Winckler, singer and winner of Idols South Africa (season 1)
• 3 April – John Smit, Springbok rugby player and captain of the 2007 Rugby World Cup champions.

Deaths

• 8 January – Richard Turner, activist and academic, is shot dead at his Durban home at the age of 36 (b.1941)
• 12 January – Monty Naicker, a medical doctor and prominent politician, dies in Durban.
• 12 January – Philemon (Duma) Nokwe, politician and the first black advocate of the Supreme Court of Transvaal.
• 4 June – Benjamin John Peter Tyamzashe, Xhosa composer, choir conductor and organist, dies in East London.
• Sewsunker "Papwa" Sewgolum, legendary golfer.

Railways

Locomotives

• Three new Cape gauge locomotive types enter service on the South African Railways (SAR):
  • August – The first of 58 Class 34-800 General Motors Electro-Motive Division type GT26MC diesel-electric locomotives.^[4][5]
  • The first of one hundred Class 7E electric locomotives, the SAR's first 25 kV AC locomotive.^{[3]:129–131}
  • The first of twenty-five Class 9E, Series 1 electric locomotives, the SAR's first 50 kV AC locomotive, on the Sishen-Saldanha iron ore line.^{[3]:129–131[5]}

• 31 October – SAR Class 6E1, Series 4 locomotive no. E1525 reaches a speed of 245 kilometres per hour (152 miles per hour) on a stretch of track between Westonaria and Midway, a still unbeaten world rail speed record on 3 feet 6 inches (1,067 millimetres) Cape gauge track.^{[3]:128–129[4]:56–57}

• The SAR rebuilds Class 6E1, Series 5 no. E1600, a 3 kV DC electric locomotive, as a test-bed for use during 25 kV AC electrification.^{[3]:128–129, 136}

Sports

Motorsport

• 4 March – The South African Grand Prix takes place at Kyalami.

References