1980 in South Africa

Incumbents

• State President: Marais Viljoen

Events

January

• 14 – The local community at Soekmekaar resists forced removal and damages the police station.
• 25 – Three Umkhonto we Sizwe terrorists, Stephen Mafoko, Humphrey Makhubo and Wilfred Madela, kill two civilians and hold the staff and customers in a bank in Silverton in Pretoria hostage. The siege ends in a shoot-out with the police in which all three terrorists are killed.^[1]

March

• 12 – The Nederduits Gereformeerde Kerk (NGK) together with its sister churches for Blacks (the NGK in Afrika), Coloureds (the NG Sendingkerk) and Indians (the Reformed Church in Africa), issue a statement that the Churches will bring no objection in principle should authorities judge that circumstances justify reconsideration of the Immorality Act and the Mixed Marriages Act.
• 12 – In Pretoria nine people are sentenced to five to seven years imprisonment for training as guerrillas outside South Africa and recruiting others to undergo training.
• 26 – A mine lift cage at the Vaal Reefs gold mine in South Africa falls 1.9 kilometres (1.2 miles), killing 23.
• Two insurgents are killed by police in Bophuthatswana, while another escapes.

April

• 4 – Umkhonto we Sizwe attacks the Booysens Police Station in Johannesburg with grenades, rocket launchers and AK47s.
• 21 – More than sixty coloured high schools, teacher training colleges and the University of the Western Cape start boycotting classes.
• 29 – In Johannesburg hundreds of coloured school children are arrested in terms of the Riotous Assemblies Act during a student-police confrontation.

May

• 2 – Pink Floyd's Another Brick in the Wall is banned because the government fears that it might be used as a song of liberty by black school children.
• 6 – Thozamile Botha, an activist living in the Port Elizabeth area, breaks his banning order and escapes to Maseru, Lesotho.
• 25 – The South African Defence Force attacks the town of Chifufua in Angola during Operation Sceptic.

June

• 1 – Bombs explode at Sasol One and Two and Natref Eight at Sasolburg and Secunda, with no injuries and RM58 damage. The attack was organised by Solomon Mahlangu of the Umkhonto weSizwe Special Operations.

August

• Special Branch policeman Detective-Sergeant T.G. Zondi is shot at in Sobantu Village.

October

• 14 – The Soweto community calls for a stayaway to protest against rent increases.
• 15 – A bomb damages a railway line in Dube, Soweto and Piet Koornhof, minister of co-operation and development, visits the scene.
• 29 – Umkhonto we Sizwe insurgents throw two grenades into the government buildings of the West Rand Administration Board and injure a security guard and his friend.
• 30 – A bomb explodes at the Transkei consul's residence in Port Elizabeth but no injuries result.

November

• 21 – A terrorist is killed in Chiawelo and a child is injured by police in the process.

Deaths

• 12 March – Lillian Masediba Ngoyi (Ma Ngoyi), a dressmaker, political activist and trade unionist who suffered from heart trouble, dies at the age of 68 in Johannesburg. (b. 1911)
• 4 June – Patrick Makau, Umkhonto weSizwe member, and his child (9) are killed in a bomb attack on two houses in Manzini, Swaziland.
• June – Expelled African National Congress official Tennyson Makiwane is shot dead.

Railways

Locomotives

Three new Cape gauge locomotive types enter service on the South African Railways (SAR):

• August – The first of 101 Class 36-200 General Motors Electro-Motive Division SW1002 diesel-electric locomotives. ^{[2][3][4]:142-143}
• The first of thirty Class 34-900 General Electric type U26C diesel-electric locomotives.^{[3][4]:140–141}
• The first of fifty 25 kV AC Class 7E1 electric locomotives on the Richards Bay coal line.^{[3][4]:129–131}

Sports

• 12 January – The British Sports Council begins a three-week fact-finding tour of South Africa to investigate racial discrimination in sport.

Athletics

• 11 October – Thompson Magawana wins his first national title in the men's marathon, clocking 2:12:50 in Faure.

Motorsport

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

Rugby

• 10 May – The British and Irish Lions begin an 18-match tour of South Africa despite protests from anti-apartheid groups. The tourists lose three of the four Tests.

References