1980 in South Africa

Incumbents

• State President: Marais Viljoen.^[1]
• Prime Minister: P.W. Botha.

Events

January

• 12 – The British Sports Council begins a fact-finding tour to investigate racial discrimination in South African sport.
• 14 – The local community at Soekmekaar resists forced removal and damages the police station.
• 25 – Four Umkhonto we Sizwe terrorists kill two civilians and hold bank staff and customers hostage in Silverton.^[2]

March

• 12 – The Nederduits Gereformeerde Kerk and its three sister churches announce that they have no objection to reconsideration of the Immorality- and Mixed Marriages Acts.
• 12 – Nine people are sentenced to imprisonment for training as guerrillas and recruiting others.
• 26 – A mine lift cage at the Vaal Reefs gold mine 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 – Over 60 coloured high schools, teacher training colleges and the University of the Western Cape begin class boycotts.
• 29 – In Johannesburg hundreds of coloured school children are arrested in terms of the Riotous Assemblies Act.

May

• 2 – Pink Floyd's Another Brick in the Wall is banned for fear that it may become a song of liberty by black pupils.
• 6 – Thozamile Botha, a Port Elizabeth activist, 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.
• 4 – Patrick Makau, Umkhonto weSizwe member, and his child die in a bomb attack in Manzini, Swaziland.
• Expelled African National Congress official Tennyson Makiwane is shot dead.

August

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

September

• 3 – Zimbabwe breaks diplomatic and consular relations with South Africa but maintains a commercial mission in Johannesburg.

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 Minister Piet Koornhof visits the scene.
• 29 – Umkhonto we Sizwe insurgents throw grenades into the West Rand Administration Board buildings, injuring two.
• 30 – A bomb explodes at the Transkei consul's residence in Port Elizabeth, with no injuries.

November

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

Births

• 6 June – Mmusi Maimane, politician and Democratic Alliance leader.
• 3 July – Roland Schoeman, swimmer.

Deaths

• 24 February – Clement Martyn Doke, linguist. (b. 1893)
• 13 March – Lilian Ngoyi (Mma Ngoyi), dressmaker, activist and trade unionist. (b. 1911)
• 9 May – Kate Molale, activist. (b. 1928)
• 12 June – Billy Butlin, South African–born Canadian holiday camp entrepreneur. (b. 1899)
• 23 September – Jim Fouché, second State President. (b. 1898)

Railways

Class 36-200 (GM-EMD SW1002)

Class 7E1

Locomotives

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

• August – The first of 101 Class 36-200 General Motors Electro-Motive Division SW1002 diesel-electric locomotives. ^[3][4][5]
• The first of thirty Class 34-900 General Electric type U26C diesel-electric locomotives.^[4][5]
• The first of fifty 25 kV AC Class 7E1 electric locomotives on the Richards Bay coal line.^[4][5]

Sports

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