1982 in South Africa

The following lists events that happened during 1982 in South Africa.

Incumbents

 * State President: Marais Viljoen.
 * Prime Minister: P.W. Botha.
 * Chief Justice: Frans Lourens Herman Rumpff then Pieter Jacobus Rabie.

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.
 * 16 – The United Freedom Front bombs offices of South African Airways in Elmont, NY and IBM in Harrison, NY.
 * 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.
 * South Africa adopts a brighter version of the 1928 flag.

Births

 * 2 January – Ricky Januarie, rugby player.
 * 8 March – Brett Evans, football player.
 * 17 March – Steven Pienaar, football player.
 * 18 March – Sisanda Henna, producer, director, and actor.
 * 24 March – Fourie du Preez, rugby player.
 * 2 May – Johan Botha (cricketer), cricketer.
 * 18 May – Katlego Mashego, football player.
 * 11 June – Chere Burger, dressage rider.
 * 9 June – Reneilwe Letsholonyane, football player.
 * 25 July – Monde Zondeki, cricketer
 * 27 August – Khuli Chana, Motswako rapper.
 * 6 October – Gio Aplon, rugby player.
 * 19 October – Louis Oosthuizen, golfer.
 * 21 October – Thapelo Mokoena, actor.
 * 16 November
 * Anke Pietrangeli, singer.
 * Jannie du Plessis, rugby player.
 * 9 December – Lee-Ann Liebenberg, model. She is notable as 2005 FHM-South Africa's Sexiest Woman In the World.
 * 22 December – Teko Modise, football player.

Deaths

 * 5 February – Neil Aggett, trade unionist and activist. (b. 1953)
 * 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)

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.
 * Twenty-five 25 kV AC Class 7E2, Series 1 electric locomotives.
 * The first of six Class 9E, Series 2 General Electric Company 50 kV AC electric locomotives on the Sishen-Saldanha iron ore line.

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.