1949 in South Africa

The following lists events that happened during 1949 in South Africa.

Incumbents

 * Monarch: King George VI.
 * Governor-General and High Commissioner for Southern Africa: Gideon Brand van Zyl.
 * Prime Minister: Daniel François Malan.
 * Chief Justice: Ernest Frederick Watermeyer.

Events

 * January
 * 13,14 – Durban riots against Indians
 * June
 * 29 – South Africa introduces its apartheid policy.


 * July
 * 1 – The Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act, 1949, Act No. 55 of 1949, is passed.


 * October
 * 30 – Ben Schoeman announces in Johannesburg that the NP would carry the apartheid policy through "notwithstanding what serious economic problems it might cause".


 * November
 * 1 – Seretse Khama and his British wife Ruth Williams Khama are declared forbidden in South Africa.


 * December
 * 16 – The Voortrekker Monument is officially inaugurated in Pretoria.


 * Unknown date
 * The University of Pretoria establishes the Graduate School of Management (GSM), the first MBA programme to be launched outside of North America.
 * The South African Post Office begins to force Europeans and non-Europeans to stand in separate queues in post offices and serve them at different counters.

Births

 * 27 January – Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, politician.
 * 29 January – Eugene de Kock, South African Police colonel and assassin.
 * 8 April – Fanie de Jager, operatic tenor.
 * 29 April – Pravin Gordhan, national minister
 * 23 May – Estian Calitz, academic.
 * 2 June – Michael Lapsley, Anglican priest and activist.
 * 17 July – Bill Faure, film director. (d. 1994)
 * 19 July – Kgalema Motlhanthe, politician, former President of South Africa.
 * 23 July – Clive Rice, cricketer. (d. 2015)
 * 21 October – Morne du Plessis, Springboks captain & rugby administrator.
 * 24 November – Neall Ellis, helicopter pilot and mercenary.
 * 28 November – Nosimo Balindlela, politician.

Deaths

 * 4 May – Hendrik Adolph Mulder, poet and Afrikaans literary critic.

Locomotives

 * The South African Railways places the first of one hundred Class 24 2-8-4 Berkshire type branchline steam locomotives in service, most of them on the South West Africa System.

Sport
7.1 Golf
 * Bobby Locke tied with Harry Bradshaw (Ireland) both scored 283 (−5).Bobby Locke then won the 36 holes play-off by 12 shots. British Open championship. Royal St. Georges Golf Club. Sandwich. 6–9 July 1949.

7.2 Tennis
 * Eric Sturgess & Sheila Summers became the South Africa's first Wimbledon champions when they beat John Bromwich (Australia) & Louis Brough (USA), 8–7, 9–11, 7–5, to win the mixed doubles final.
 * Eric Sturgess was awarded the Helms Trophy as the best athlete of the African continent.