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See also: 1959 in South Africa, other events of 1960, 1960 in South African sport, 1961 in South Africa and the Timeline of South African history.

Events

February

• 3 February - Harold Macmillan makes the Wind of Change speech to the Parliament of South Africa in Cape Town, receiving a stony reception.

March

• 21 March - Sharpeville massacre, Police shoot and kill an estimated 69 people who were part of a demonstration against pass laws, in which all black South Africans needed a passbook to be able to travel about their own land
• 22 March - Hendrik Frensch Verwoerd tells Parliament that the Anti-Pass Resistance in Sharpeville, Gauteng was not targeted against the government
• 23 March - Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe, leader of the Pan Africanist Congress, who led the Sharpeville demonstration, Albert Lutuli for publicly burning his pass and 11 others are arrested for incitement of riots
• 24 March - All public meetings more than 12 people are banned, later reduced to meetings greater than 3 people
• 30 March - The government declared a State of Emergency

April

• 8 April - The government bans the African National Congress and the Pan Africanist Congress with the coming into effect of the Unlawful Organisations Act.
• 9 April - David Pratt shoots and injures Hendrik Verwoerd, the Prime Minister of South Africa, as he opened the Rand Easter Show at Milner Park, Johannesburg
• 19 April - The South-West Africa People's Organisation (SWAPO) is founded in Windhoek, South West Africa, to oppose South African rule

May

• 4 May - Robert Sobukwe, President of the Pan Africanist Congress, is sentenced to 3 years imprisonment for incitement of Africans to urge the repeal of pass laws

October

• 5 October - whites vote in a referendum, to sever South Africa's last links with the British monarchy and become a republic

Births

• 16 July - PJ Powers, musician, born in Durban
• 24 August - Geraldine Joslyn Fraser-Moleketi, politician
• 16 October - Mark Mathabane, author, tennis player born in Johannesburg

Deaths