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See also: 1949 in South Africa, other events of 1950, 1951 in South Africa and the Timeline of South African history.

Events

March

• 18 March - University of the Free State is founded

May

• 1 May - 18 blacks are killed by police and more than 30 are injured on the Witwatersrand in a massive stay-away from work called for by the African National Congress
• 1 May - Springbok Radio, the SABC's first commercial service, is inaugurated

June

• 24 June - The South Africa national football team beats the Australia national football team 3-2 at Kingsmead, Durban, in the Australian tour of South Africa

July

• 1 July - The South Africa national football team beats the Australia national football team 2-1 at Ellis Park, Johannesburg, in the Australian tour of South Africa
• 8 July - The South Africa national football team loses to the Australia national football team 1-2 at Saint George's Park, Port Elizabeth, in the Australian tour of South Africa
• 23 July - The South Africa national football team loses to the Australia national football team 0-2 at Hartley Vale, Cape Town, in the Australian tour of South Africa

August

• 5 August - A South African Air Force squadron departs for the Korean War
• 6 August - The municipality of East London decides not to approve of prospecting for oil off the city's seafront

September

• 26 September - Sasol (Suid-Afrikaanse Steenkool, Olie en Gaskorporasie Bpk.) is registered as a company

October

• 23 October - Ernest George Jansen is appointed the 9th Governor-General of the Union of South Africa

November

• 2 November - South African Airways inaugurates a daily service between Johannesburg and Bulawayo, and between Johannesburg and Cape Town

December

• 13 December - South Africa refuses to place South-West Africa under UN trusteeship
• 21 December - The gold town of Allanridge in the Free State Province is established

Unknown date

• Oribi Gorge Nature Reserve is proclaimed a protected state forest
• H.F. Verwoerd becomes Minister of Native Affairs and implements the forced removal of about 80 000 Africans from Sophiatown, Martindale and Newclare to Soweto
• The government passes the Immorality Act, the Group Areas Act, the Suppression of Communism Act, and the Population Registration Act (which officially divided South Africans into 'White', 'Coloured', 'Asian' or 'Native')
• United States and United Kingdom sign a purchasing agreement with South Africa to supply uranium for their nuclear weapons programmes

Births

• 2 February - Richard Mzamane Mabaso, artist, is born in Alexandra, Gauteng

Deaths

• 9 May - Bhawani Sannyassi Dayal, activist and journalist, dies in Ajmer, India
• 11 September - Jan Smuts dies, at the age of 80, on his family farm of Doornkloof, Irene, near Pretoria