1897 in South Africa
# 1897 in South Africa

The following lists events that happened during 1897 in South Africa.

## Incumbents

* Governor of the Cape of Good Hope and High Commissioner for Southern Africa:Hercules Robinson then Alfred Milner.
* Governor of the Colony of Natal: Charles Bullen Hugh Mitchell.
* State President of the Orange Free State: Martinus Theunis Steyn.
* State President of the South African Republic: Paul Kruger.
* Prime Minister of the Cape of Good Hope: John Gordon Sprigg.
* Prime Minister of the Colony of Natal:
   * until 14 February: John Robinson.
   * 15 February – 4 October: Harry Escombe.
   * starting 4 October: Henry Binns.

## Events

### April

* 21 – Sir Alfred Milner becomes High Commissioner of South Africa and Governor of the Cape Colony.

### May

* 5 – Port Elizabeth is flooded.

### December

* 30 – The Colony of Natal annexes Zululand.

### Unknown date

* Bergville is established in the foothills of the Drakensberg mountains in Natal.
* "Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika" ("God Bless Africa") is composed as a Xhosa hymn by South African teacher Enoch Sontonga.

## Births

* 3 July – Ludwig Wybren Hiemstra, Afrikaans linguist and editor of the Bilingual Dictionary, is born in Lydenburg.
* 26 October – James Leonard Brierley Smith, ichthyologist, is born in Graaff Reinet.

## Railways

### Railway lines opened

* 13 March – Cape Western – Mafeking to Ramatlabama at the Bechuanaland border, 16 miles (25.7 kilometres).
* 3 August – Transvaal – Frederikstad to Klerksdorp, 43 miles (69.2 kilometres).
* 1 October – Cape Midland – Rosmead Junction to Middelburg, 7 miles 3 chains (11.3 kilometres).
* 1 December – Natal – Isipingo to Park Rynie, 27 miles 48 chains (44.4 kilometres).
* 3 December – Natal – Verulam to Tongaat, 12 miles (19.3 kilometres).
* 15 December – Natal – Thornville Junction to Richmond, 17 miles 17 chains (27.7 kilometres).

### Locomotives

**Cape**

Two new Cape gauge locomotive types enter service on the Cape Government Railways (CGR):

* Six 4th Class 4-4-2 Atlantic type tender locomotives on the section from Kimberley southwards.
* A third batch of fifty-five 6th Class 4-6-0 steam locomotives. In 1912 they would become Class 6B on the South African Railways.

**Transvaal**

* The independent Pretoria-Pietersburg Railway in the Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek (Transvaal Republic) purchases a 4-6-0 35 Tonner tank locomotive named Portuguese from the Lourenco Marques, Delagoa Bay and East Africa Railway in Mozambique.
* Arthur Koppel, acting as agent, imports a number of Dickson-built 0-4-2ST narrow gauge saddle tank steam locomotives to mines on the Witwatersrand.
