1949 in South Africa
# 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.

## Railways

### 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.
