1901 in South Africa
# 1901 in South Africa

The following lists events that happened during 1901 in South Africa.

## Incumbents

### Cape Colony

* Governor of the Cape of Good Hope and High Commissioner for Southern Africa:Alfred Milner then Walter Hely-Hutchinson (governor from 6 March but not high commissioner).
* Prime Minister of the Cape of Good Hope: John Gordon Sprigg.

### Natal

* Governor of the Colony of Natal: Charles Bullen Hugh Mitchell (until 6 May), Henry Edward McCallum (starting 6 May).
* Prime Minister of the Colony of Natal: Albert Henry Hime.

### Orange Free State

* State President of the Orange Free State: Martinus Theunis Steyn.
* Administrator of British-occupied Orange River Colony and UK High Commissioner for Southern Africa: Alfred Milner, 1st Viscount Milner.

### South African Republic

* State President of the South African Republic: Paul Kruger (in exile); Schalk Willem Burger (acting).
* Administrator of British-occupied Transvaal and UK High Commissioner for Southern Africa: Alfred Milner, 1st Viscount Milner.

## Events

### January

* 9 – Herbert Kitchener reports that Christiaan de Wet has shot a British peace envoy and flogged two more who had gone to his commando to ask the Burghers to halt fighting.
* 15 – HMS Sybille, a 3,400-ton Apollo-class cruiser, strikes a reef about 5 km (3.1 mi) south of Lamberts Bay.
* 31 – General Jan Smuts and his commandos capture Modderfontein.

### February

* 1 – Bubonic plague breaks out in Cape Town.
* 26 – The Middelburg peace conference fails as Boers continue to demand autonomy.

### May

* 31 – Officially unrecognized Zulu king Dinuzulu kaCetshwayo refuses British instructions to take up arms against the Boers.

### June

* 18 – Emily Hobhouse reports on the high mortality and cruel conditions in the Second Boer War concentration camps
* 25 – Boer armies invaded the Cape Colony and attacked the British settlement of Richmond for a day, then retreated as British forces approached.

### July

* 2–6 – Nine Boer prisoners-of-war are murdered by Australian members of the Bushveldt Carbineers in the Spelonken area near Louis Trichardt.
* 16 – The Fawcett Commission is established to look at living conditions of women and children, including water supply, sanitation, medical care and the mortality and birth rates in the concentration camps.

### August

* 4 – Lieutenant-general Paul Methuen destroys the village of Schweizer-Reneke under the British scorched earth policy.
* 20 – General Koos de la Rey's 84-year-old mother is sent to a concentration camp at Klerksdorp.

### September

* 17 – Commandant-General Louis Botha and General Cecil "Cherry" Cheere Emmett join forces to invade Natal.

### October

* Mahatma Gandhi embarks at Durban for Mauritius en route to Bombay.

### November

* 1 – Standard Bank opens its second branch in Johannesburg on Eloff Street.
* 9 – The electric tramline in Cape Town is extended from Sea Point to Camps Bay.
* 18 – Boer commandos invade the Cape Colony and come to within 50 miles of Cape Town.

### December

* 22 – On Peace Sunday Charles Frederic Aked (1864–1941), a Baptist minister in Liverpool, says: "Great Britain cannot win the battles without resorting to the last despicable cowardice of the most loathsome cur on earth; the act of striking a brave man's heart through his wife's honour and his child's life. The cowardly war has been conducted by methods of barbarism... the concentration camps have been Murder Camps." A crowd follows him home and breaks the windows of his house.

## Births

* 24 January – Harry Calder, South African cricketer. (d. 1995)
* 9 September – Hendrik Frensch Verwoerd, Prime Minister of South Africa. (assassinated 1966) (born in the Netherlands)

## Deaths

* 19 May – Marthinus Wessel Pretorius, first president of the South African Republic and founder of Pretoria, at age 81.

## Railways

### Railway lines opened

* 13 March – Natal – Stanger to Kearsney, 8 miles (12.9 kilometres).
* 27 July – Natal – Mtwalume to North Shepstone, 20 miles 70 chains (33.6 kilometres).
* 9 September – Cape Western – Malmesbury to Moorreesburg, 30 miles 51 chains (49.3 kilometres).

### Locomotives

**Cape**

* Six new Cape gauge locomotive types enter service on the Cape Government Railways (CGR):
   * Six 4-4-0 3rd Class Wynberg Tender locomotives in suburban service in Cape Town.
   * Eight redesigned American-built 6th Class 4-6-0 steam locomotives. In 1912 they would be designated Class 6G on the South African Railways (SAR).
   * 21 6th Class 4-6-0 steam locomotives, built to the older designs with plate frames. In 1912 they would be reclassified to Class 6H on the SAR.
   * Ten American-built 6th Class 4-6-0 bar framed locomotives. In 1912 they would be designated Class 6K on the SAR.
   * Four 6th Class 2-6-2 Prairie type locomotives that are soon modified to a 2-6-4 Adriatic type wheel arrangement. In 1912 they would be designated Class 6Z on the $SAR.^{:11}$
   * The first of sixteen 8th Class 2-8-0 Consolidation type locomotives. In 1912 they would be designated Class 8X on the SAR.
* The Namaqua Copper Company acquires its first locomotive, a 0-4-2 saddle-tank shunting engine named $Pioneer.^{:35–39}$

**Natal**

* The Natal Government Railways (NGR) rebuilds one of its Class G 4-6-0 tank locomotives to a Class H 4-6-2T Pacific wheel arrangement. In 1912 it would be designated Class C1 on the SAR.
* The Natal Harbours Department places a single 0-6-0 side-tank locomotive named Edward Innes in service as harbour shunter in Durban Harbour.
* The Zululand Railway Company, contracted for the construction of the line from Verulam to Tugela River, acquires one 2-6-2 tank locomotive.

**Transvaal**

* The Imperial Military Railways places 35 tank locomotives in service, built to the design of the Reid Tenwheeler of the NGR.
