1876 in South Africa

The following lists events that happened during 1876 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: William Owen Lanyon.
 * Prime Minister of the Cape of Good Hope: John Charles Molteno.

Events

 * January
 * The inaugural Champion Bat Tournament is held, a predecessor of first-class cricket in South Africa.
 * 15 – Die Patriot, the first Afrikaans newspaper, begins to be published in Paarl.


 * February
 * 5 – The ship Memento sinks off East London and two 2nd Class 2-6-2TT locomotives intended for the Eastern System of the Cape Government Railways are lost.


 * March
 * 27 – The Cape Times, the first daily newspaper in South Africa, begins in Cape Town, Cape Colony


 * June
 * 16 – The railway line from Cape Town to Worcester is officially opened.


 * July
 * Construction begins on the Cape Town Central Station as hub to the Cape Government Railways.


 * October
 * 19 – The 2,700 ton steamer Windsor Castle sinks off Dassen Island.


 * Unknown date
 * A Dutch Reformed Church is built at what is now the town of Amersfoort in Mpumalanga Province.
 * Prime Minister Molteno travels as plenipotentiary to London to discuss Britain's proposed confederation model for southern Africa.
 * The "Molteno Unification Plan" is put forward as an alternative model for eventual political consolidation in southern Africa.
 * Isigidimi Sama Xhosa, the first Xhosa-run newspaper, is begun in Lovedale, Cape Colony.
 * Britain admits wrongful action in its annexation of Griqualand West.
 * President Johannes Brand of the Orange Free State rejects any discussion of Carnarvon's proposed confederation system for Southern Africa.
 * The country's first official archives are created when the Cape Government appoints a commission to assemble, sort and index the records of the Cape.
 * Southern Africa's first railway tunnel, the Hex River tunnel on the railway line between Osplaas and Matroosberg, is completed.

Births

 * 9 October – Solomon Tshekisho Plaatje, intellectual, journalist, linguist, politician, translator, and writer, is born near Boshof, Orange Free State.
 * 21 October – Sir Fraser Russell, Governor of Southern Rhodesia. (d. 1952)

New lines

 * Construction begins on the East London-King William's Town line.
 * In Natal construction begins on the Cape gauge railway line inland from Durban.

Railway lines opened

 * 1 January – Namaqualand – Kookfontein to O'okiep, 32 mi.
 * 1 April – Cape Midland – Addo to Sand Flats, 22 mi.
 * 16 June – Cape Western – Ceres Road to Worcester, 24 mi.
 * 14 September – Cape Western – Bellville to Muldersvlei, 13 mi.
 * 18 December – Cape Eastern – East London to Breidbach, 38 mi.

Locomotives
Six new locomotive types enter service on the Cape Government Railways (CGR):
 * Cape
 * The first ten of eighteen 1st Class 2-6-0 Mogul goods locomotives on the Western system.
 * A pair of Stephenson's Patent back-to-back 2-6-0 Mogul type side-tank locomotives on the Cape Midland system.
 * The first of eight 2-6-0 Mogul tender locomotives on the Midland system, also designated 1st Class, all later rebuilt to saddle-tank shunting engines.
 * A single experimental 0-6-0+0-6-0 Fairlie locomotive and a pair of 0-6-0 Stephenson's Patent permanently coupled back-to-back tank locomotives for comparative trials on the Eastern system. The Fairlie is the first articulated locomotive to enter service in South Africa.
 * The first of three 1st Class 0-4-0 saddle-tank locomotives with domed boilers on the Eastern System.


 * Natal
 * In January the Natal Railway Company obtains its third and last broad gauge locomotive, a side-tank engine named Perseverance.