1972 in South Africa

Incumbents

• State President: Jim Fouché.^[1]
• Prime Minister: John Vorster.

Events

May

• 3 – Abram Onkgopotse Tiro is expelled from the University of the North and students protest the expulsion.
• 4 – South Africa and Lesotho decide to establish reciprocal consular representation.

August

• 12 – Oil tankers Oswego-Guardian and Texanita collide near Stilbaai.

October

• 1 – 1 Reconnaissance Commando is established at Oudtshoorn.

Unknown date

• A South African Special Forces team carry out a submarine-borne raid on the Tanzanian port of Dar es Salaam using the SAS Emily Hobhouse, a Daphne class submarine.
• The South African Police deploys to South West Africa.
• Conscription for all white males is extended from 9 to 12 months, followed by a 19-day annual call-up for five years.
• Operation Plathond, a joint South African Defence Force and South African Bureau of State Security operation, is launched to train dissident Zambians in the Caprivi Strip, South West Africa.

Births

• 2 February – Hendrick Ramaala, long-distance runner.
• 12 March – Arno Carstens, singer-songwriter, lead singer of Springbok Nude Girls.
• 2 June – Irene van Dyk, South African and New Zealand netball player.
• 25 August – Elmarie Gerryts, pole vaulter.
• 8 September – Os du Randt, Springbok rugby player.

Deaths

Class 35-000 (GE U15C)

• 14 May – Lawrence G. Green, journalist and author. (b. 1900)
• 11 August – Max Theiler, South African-American virologist and physician and Nobel Prize laureate. (b. 1899)

Railways

Locomotives

• In March the South African Railways places the first of seventy Class 35-000 General Electric type U15C diesel-electric locomotives in branchline service.^[2][3]

References