1982 in South Africa
# 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)

## Railways

### 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.

## Sports

### 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.
