1982 in South Africa

Incumbents

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

Events

January

• 7 – A bomb damages the office of the West Rand Administration Board in Soweto.
• 8 – Umkhonto we Sizwe guerrillas attack Koeberg nuclear power plant in Cape Town.
• 11 – The United Nations Special Committee against Apartheid launches the International Year of Mobilisation for Sanctions against South Africa.

February

• 15 – Four COSAS-Members are bombed by the Security Branch under orders of Brigadier Schoon at a mine dump outside Kagiso. Three die and one is injured.
• 18 – The South African Navy frigate SAS President Kruger sinks with the loss of 16 lives after colliding with SAS Tafelberg.
• 24 – Andries Treurnicht and another 22 National Party MPs vote for no confidence in Prime Minister P.W. Botha.
• South Africa and Swaziland sign a non-aggression pact.

March

• 6 – F.W. de Klerk replaces Andries Treurnicht as leader of the National Party in the Transvaal.
• 9-14 – The South African Defence Force's Operation Super takes place.
• 14 – A bomb explodes at the African National Congress headquarters in London.
• 20 – A bomb explodes at the Langa Commissioners Court.

April

• 30 – Prime Minister P.W. Botha and President of Zambia Kenneth Kaunda meet on the Botswana border to discuss the political situation in South West Africa and South Africa.

May

• 12 – A bomb damages the office of the West Rand Administration Board in Soweto for the second time.
• 21 – A bomb explodes at the offices of the Department of Coloured Affairs in Pinetown near Durban.
• 28 – A fuel depot and power transformer in Hectorspruit is damaged by a limpet mine.

June

• 3 – A bomb damages the railway near Dube in Soweto.
• 4 – One person is killed when a bomb explodes in a lift at the offices of the Presidents Council in Cape Town.
• 28 – The railway depot at Vryheid is damaged in an explosion.
• 28 – In Scheepersnek, two bombs cause extensive damage to the railway depot, pump station, stores and vehicles.
• 28 – The Durban-Witwatersrand oil pipeline is damaged by a bomb.

July

• In Port Elizabeth the police station commander's office and New Law Courts are damaged in an attack.

August

• 28 – The Umvoti Mounted Rifles base in Red Hill, Durban is attacked.

September

• 24 – Umkhonto we Sizwe places explosives on a railway bridge near Upington that fails to detonate.
• Two insurgents are killed by police in Boksburg.

October

• 26 – Three bombs explode at the Drakensberg Administration offices in Pietermaritzburg.
• A special branch policeman and an insurgent are killed in a skirmish in KwaZulu-Natal.

November

• 8 – A bomb causes severe damage at the Mobil fuel storage depot in Mkuze.
• 20-21 – Umkhonto we Sizwe uses RPG-7s to attack a rural police station and temporary South African Army garrison at Tonga.

December

• 10 – The South African Defence Force stages a pre-dawn raid on houses inhabited by African National Congress in Maseru, Lesotho.^[2]
• 16 – The United Freedom Front bombs offices of South African Airways in Elmont, NY and IBM in Harrison, NY.^[3][4]
• 18-19 – Four explosions cause massive damage at the Koeberg nuclear power station just north of Cape Town.
• 31 – A bomb damages the Johannesburg Magistrates court 200m from John Vorster Square.
• One person is killed and 70 injured in a bomb blast at the Southern Free State Administration Board in Bloemfontein.

Unknown date

• Bulelani Ngcuka is jailed for three years for refusing to give evidence in the political trial of Patrick Maqubele and others.

Births

• 19 October – Louis Oosthuizen, golfer.

Deaths

• 5 February – Neil Aggett, trade unionist and activist. (b. 1953) ^[2]
• 29 March – H. Selby Msimang, journalist and activist. (b. 1886)
• 16 July – Charles Robberts Swart, last Governor-General and first State President. (b. 1894)
• 17 August – Ruth First, anti-apartheid activist and scholar. (b. 1925)
• 20 August – Walter Battiss, artist. (b. 1906)

Railways

Class 6E1, Series 10

Locomotives

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

• The first of fifty-five Class 6E1, Series 10 electric locomotives.^[5]
• Twenty-five 25 kV AC Class 7E2, Series 1 electric locomotives.^[5][6]
• The first of six Class 9E, Series 2 General Electric Company 50 kV AC electric locomotives on the Sishen-Saldanha iron ore line.^[5][7]

Sports

Athletics

• 16 October – Gabashane Rakabaele wins his third national title in the men's marathon in Durban.

Motorsport

• 23 January – The South African Grand Prix takes place at Kyalami.

References