Events in South African History
Events 601 - 639 of 639
South African History
2018-02-14 South African President Jacob Zuma resigns from office
- 2018-02-15 Cyril Ramaphosa is sworn in as South African President, replacing Jacob Zuma
- 2018-03-04 World's worst listeria outbreak suspected of killing 180 tracked to processed meat factory in Polokwane, South Africa
Obama Honors Mandela
2018-07-17 Barack Obama gives speech honoring Nelson Mandela and warning of "strongman politics" in Johannesburg, South Africa
- 2018-09-12 Oldest known human drawing discovered, a hashtag-like abstract drawing with red ochre, 73,000 years old, in Blombos Cave, South Africa published in "Nature"
- 2018-09-18 South Africa's Constitutional court legalizes cannabis use by adults in private places
Election of Interest
2019-05-11 South African parliamentary elections return ruling Cyril Ramaphosa's ANC party to power with reduced majority (58%)
- 2019-05-16 South African Saray Khumalo is the first black African woman to climb Mt Evervest
- 2019-09-02 Violence and looting directed at foreigners in Johannesburg results in five deaths and dozens arrested by South African police
- 2019-09-05 South African women march on parliament to protest violence against women after a month when 30 were killed by their spouses
- 2019-09-09 Nigerian government says it will repatriate 600 people from South Africa after two people killed in wave of xenophobic violence in Johannesburg
- 2020-03-23 COVID-19 lockdowns imposed in South Africa and the United Kingdom while other European nations extend and strengthen their lockdowns
- 2020-04-21 South African President Cyril Ramaphosa announces $26 billion aid package and plans for gradual reopening of economy as cases reach 3,465 with 58 deaths
- 2020-05-30 Record number of COVID-19 cases reported worldwide 134,064, driven by hot spots in Brazil, Peru, Egypt, South Africa and Bangladesh
- 2020-07-23 South Africa records more than 400,000 COVID-19 cases amid surging infections and decides to shut schools for a month
- 2020-08-02 South Africa confirms over 500,000 cases of COVID-19 with 10,107 deaths, highest total on the African continent
- 2020-12-18 South Africa announces detection of new variant of COVID-19, called 501.V2, which is driving a second wave of infections
- 2021-02-08 South Africa halts rollout of Oxford AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine after research into the South African variant showed no protection against mild and moderate illness
- 2021-02-17 South Africa, Africa's worst-affected country begins COVID-19 vaccinations with the one-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine in Cape Town
- 2021-04-13 US, South Africa and the EU authorities temporarily stop administrating Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccines after six women developed blood clots (out of 6.8 million)
- 2021-06-26 South Africa announces 14-day lockdown to counter a third COVID-19 wave of infections fueled by the Delta variant, with only 2.5 million vaccines administrated [1]
- 2021-06-29 Former South African President Jacob Zuma sentenced to 15 months in prison on contempt of court charges
- 2021-07-13 337 die in violent protests and looting in South Africa following the jailing of Jacob Zuma, with more than 200 shopping malls set alight [1]
- 2021-11-03 South African writer Damon Galgut wins literature's Booker Prize for his novel "The Promise"
- 2021-11-26 WHO labels COVID-19 variant Omicron a "variant of concern", with its dozens of new mutations, after it emerges in Botswana and South Africa [1]
Desmond Tutu's Funeral
2022-01-01 State Funeral in Cape Town, South Africa, for anti-apartheid leader Archbishop Desmond Tutu
- 2022-04-13 At least 448 people killed after heavy rains and flooding in KwaZulu-Natal province, South Africa, "one of the worst weather storms in the history of our country" according to authorities [1]
- 2022-04-18 South African President Cyril Ramaphosa declares a national state of disaster, after floods and mudslides in Durban area result in over 400 deaths and destroy over 4,000 homes [1]
- 2022-08-20 Misuzulu ka Zwelithini crowned Zulu King at KwaKhangelamankengane Palace in KwaZulu-Natal province, South Africa [1]
- 2022-10-29 Misuzulu ka Zwelithini crowned Zulu King in Duban, South Africa in the first coronation since 1994 democratic elections [1]
- 2022-11-02 Ethiopia’s government and Tigrayan authorities reach an agreement end fighting after two years at peace talks in South Africa [1]
- 2022-11-22 UK's King Charles hosts his first state visit - welcoming South African President Cyril Ramaphosa at Buckingham Palace [1]
- 2022-12-05 Construction begins on world's biggest radio telescope - the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) in South Africa and Australia with collection area of nearly 500,000 square meters. Built to test Einstein's theories and search for extraterrestrial life [1]
- 2023-02-09 South African President Cyril Ramaphosa declares "a national state of disaster" to respond to the country's electricity crisis amid daily blackouts
- 2023-03-24 Africa's first centralised biobank - Biodiversity Biobanks South Africa, collecting more than a million biodiversity samples opens in Pretoria, South Africa [1]
- 2023-03-27 Convicted rapist fakes his own death by pretending to set himself alight (in reality kills someone else) to escape from prison in South Africa, sparking large manhunt [1]
- 2023-08-24 BRICS meeting of emerging nations in South Africa agrees to invite six new nations to join, in attempt to balance global power of the US and Europe [1]
- 2023-08-31 At least 74 die in a fire in a office building housing migrants and vulnerable people in Johannesburg, South Africa [1]
- 2024-01-11 South Africa begins its case accusing Israel of genocidal acts against Palestinians in Gaza and violating the 1948 genocide convention at the International Court of Justice in The Hague [1]
Alan Paton
Bobby Locke
Candice Swanepoel
Charlize Theron
Christiaan Barnard
Cyril Ramaphosa