1976 in South Africa

[[Image:Flag of South Africa 1928-1994.svg|border|35px|alt=	link=South Africa]]	1976 in South Africa	[[Image:Flag of South Africa 1928-1994.svg|border|35px|alt=	link=South Africa]]
1973 1974 1975 « 1976 » 1977 1978 1979
List of years in South Africa

Incumbents

• State President: Nicolaas Johannes Diederichs

Events

January

• 5 – The SABC begins the country's first television service.

March

• 27 – The South African Defence Force withdraws from Angola and concludes Operation Savannah.

May

• 29 – Eskom announces that it will order two nuclear power stations from France.

June

• 16 – Student riots break out in Soweto and Hector Pieterson, Hastings Ndlovu and two white officials of the West Rand Board are some of the casualties.^[1]:18
• 23 – B.J. Vorster, Prime Minister of South Africa and Henry Kissinger, United States Secretary of State, hold talks in West Germany over the Rhodesian issue.

August

• 25–26 – The Prime Minister of South Africa, B.J. Vorster and the President of Zambia, Kenneth Kaunda meet at Victoria Falls.

September

• 13 – The Cillié Commission of Inquiry into the 16 June riots in Soweto begins.
• 30 – Michael Lapsley, Anglican priest and social activist, arrives in Lesotho after his visa was not renewed in South Africa.

October

• 26 – Transkei gains complete independence from South Africa.

Unknown date

• Umkhonto we Sizwe's central operations headquarters is established and the process of establishing training camps in Angola begins, with the Gabela Training Camp being the first to be established.

Births

• 20 January – Ian Syster, long-distance runner. (d. 2004)
• 5 March – Wayne Denne, field hockey player.
• 5 April – David Staniforth, field hockey goalkeeper.
• 3 July – Robert Brian Skinstad, South Africa national rugby union team captain, is born in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe.

Deaths

• 16 June – Hector Pieterson, a 12-year-old boy, is killed by police during riots in Soweto.
• 9 September – Ivan Mitford-Barberton, art teacher at the Michaelis School of Art in Cape Town and sculptor of several monuments in South Africa, dies in Hout Bay, Cape Town at the age of 80.

Railways

Locomotives

Three new Cape gauge locomotive types enter service on the South African Railways (SAR):

• March – The first of one hundred Class 35-400 General Electric type U15C diesel-electric locomotives.^[2][3][4]
• September – The first of one hundred Class 35-600 General Motors Electro-Motive Division type GT18MC diesel-electric locomotives.^{[2]:38, 42–43, 46[3][4]:141–142}
• The first of one hundred Class 6E1, Series 6 electric locomotives.^{[3][4]:128–129}

References

1. Jeffery, Anthea (2009). People's War - New Light on the Struggle for South Africa (1st ed.). Johannesburg & Cape Town: Jonathan Ball Publishers. ISBN 978-1-86842-357-6.
2. Middleton, John N. (2002). Railways of Southern Africa Locomotive Guide - 2002 (as amended by Combined Amendment List 4, January 2009) (2nd, Dec 2002 ed.). Herts, England: Beyer-Garratt Publications. pp. 38, 42.
3. South African Railways Index and Diagrams Electric and Diesel Locomotives, 610mm and 1065mm Gauges, Ref LXD 14/1/100/20, 28 January 1975, as amended
4. Paxton, Leith; Bourne, David (1985). Locomotives of the South African Railways (1st ed.). Cape Town: Struik. pp. 141–142. ISBN 0869772112.