1875 in South Africa

The following lists events that happened during 1875 in South Africa.

Incumbents

 * Governor of the Cape of Good Hope and High Commissioner for Southern Africa: Henry Barkly.
 * Lieutenant-governor of the Colony of Natal: Henry Ernest Gascoyne Bulwer.
 * State President of the Orange Free State: Jan Brand.
 * State President of the South African Republic: Thomas François Burgers.
 * Lieutenant-Governor of Griqualand West: Richard Southey (until 3 August) William Owen Lanyon (until 3 August).
 * Prime Minister of the Cape of Good Hope: John Charles Molteno.

Events

 * May
 * John Garlick started his first store on 3 May 1875, on the corner Bree and Strand Streets, in the central business district of Cape Town. This would later become Garlicks, a nationwide chain of department stores.
 * August
 * 14 – The Genootskap van Regte Afrikaners (Association of True Afrikaners) is formed at the home of Gideon Malherbe in Paarl.


 * Unknown date
 * The Black Flag Rebellion is staged by white diamond diggers at Kimberley.
 * The Molteno Government begins construction of two Midland railway lines from Swartkops in Port Elizabeth and from Uitenhage.
 * The Verlatenskloof pass in the Roggeveld Mountains, begun the previous year, is completed.

Births

 * July 7 – Vincent Tancred, cricketer (d. 1904)

Deaths

 * 19 May - Christoffel Brand, politician, (b. 1797)

New lines

 * Construction begins on the Swartkops-Alicedale line.

Railway lines opened

 * 11 May – Cape Western – Cape Town Docks to junction with mainline, 7 mi.
 * 26 July – Cape Midland – Port Elizabeth to Addo, 31 mi.
 * 22 September – Cape Midland – Swartkops to Uitenhage, 13 mi.
 * 3 November – Cape Western – Wellington to Ceres Road, 39 mi.

Locomotives
Three new locomotive types enter service on the Cape Government Railways (CGR):
 * The first eight of twenty-seven 2nd Class 2-6-2 tank-and-tender locomotives on all three newly established regional systems, the Eastern System from East London, the Midland System from Port Elizabeth and the Western System from Cape Town.
 * Three 1st Class 0-4-0 saddle-tank locomotives on the Midland and Eastern Systems.
 * The first seven of eleven 1st Class 4-4-0 tank locomotives on the Western and Midland systems.