1976 in South Africa

The following lists events that happened during 1976 in South Africa.

Incumbents

 * State President: Nico Diederichs.
 * Prime Minister: John Vorster.
 * Chief Justice: Frans Lourens Herman Rumpff.

Events

 * January
 * 5 – The SABC begins the country's first television service.


 * March
 * 27 – The South African Defence Force withdraws from Angola and concludes Operation Savannah.


 * May
 * 29 – Eskom announces that it will order two nuclear power stations from France.


 * June
 * 16 – Student riots break out in Soweto and Hector Pieterson, Hastings Ndlovu and two white officials of the West Rand Board are some of the casualties.
 * 23 – Prime Minister John Vorster and United States Secretary of State Henry Kissinger hold talks in West Germany over the Rhodesian issue.


 * August
 * 25–26 – Prime Minister John Vorster and President of Zambia Kenneth Kaunda meet at Victoria Falls.


 * September
 * 13 – The Cillié Commission of Inquiry into the 16 June riots in Soweto begins.
 * 30 – Michael Lapsley, Anglican priest and social activist, arrives in Lesotho after his visa was not renewed in South Africa.


 * October
 * 26 – Transkei gains independence from South Africa.


 * Unknown date
 * Umkhonto we Sizwe's central operations headquarters is established and the process of establishing training camps in Angola begins with the establishment of Gabela Training Camp.

Births

 * 16 January – Jonathan Solomons, South African football player
 * 20 January – Ian Syster, long-distance runner (d. 2004)
 * 30 January – Kaya Malotana, former rugby player & tv rugby analyst
 * February – Johan Thom, visual artist
 * 9 February – Colin Moss, actor and TV host
 * 22 February – Faan Rautenbach, rugby player
 * 2 March – Gaffie du Toit, rugby player
 * 5 March – Wayne Denne, field hockey player
 * 11 March – Black Coffee (DJ), DJ and record producer
 * 30 March – Chantal Botts, badminton player
 * 31 March – Thandiswa Mazwai, singer & songwriter
 * 2 April – Rory Sabbatini, golfer
 * 5 April – David Staniforth, field hockey goalkeeper
 * 20 April – Calvin Marlin, football player
 * 25 April – Breyton Paulse, rugby player
 * 19 May – Zuluboy, rapper & actor
 * 12 June – Stewart Carson, badminton player
 * 3 July – Bobby Skinstad, Springboks captain
 * 1 August – Lucky Lekgwathi, football player
 * 24 August – DJ Tira, DJ, Record Producer and Businessman, founder of Afrotainment
 * 11 September – Vuyo Dabula, actor
 * 13 September – Linda Sokhulu, actress
 * 3 October – Carl Beukes, actor
 * 14 October – Tokollo Tshabalala, Kwaito musician, most well-known for being a member of music group TKzee
 * 3 December – Mark Boucher, cricketer
 * 15 December – Kabelo Mabalane, Kwaito musician, TV personality & Pastor
 * 30 December – Ashley Callie, actress (d. 2008)

Deaths

 * 19 March – Stuart Cloete, novelist, essayist and biographer (b. 1897)
 * 26 April – Sid James, South African-born British actor (b. 1913)
 * 16 June – Melville Edelstein, sociologist, killed due to Soweto uprising (b. 1919)
 * 16 June – Hastings Ndlovu, Soweto uprising casualty (b. 1961)
 * 16 June – Hector Pieterson, Soweto uprising casualty (b. 1963)
 * 9 September – Ivan Mitford-Barberton, sculptor, writer and herald (b. 1896)
 * 6 November – Sydney Skaife, entomologist and naturalist (b. 1889)

Locomotives
Three new Cape gauge locomotive types enter service on the South African Railways:
 * March – The first of one hundred Class 35-400 General Electric type U15C diesel-electric locomotives.
 * September – The first of one hundred Class 35-600 General Motors Electro-Motive Division type GT18MC diesel-electric locomotives.
 * The first of one hundred Class 6E1, Series 6 electric locomotives.