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See also: 1977 in South Africa, other events of 1978, 1979 in South Africa and the Timeline of South African history.

Events

January

• Former African National Congress member, Steve Mtshali who turned state witness in various trials is shot and wounded

February

• An unexploded bomb "capable of destroying a 22 storey building" is found in a Johannesburg office block and defused
• 2 February - Guerrillas attack the Daveyton police station
  • Kaiser Matanzima breaks all diplomatic ties with South Africa and announces that all South African Defence Force members seconded to the Transkei Army will leave Transkei by 31 March
  • The Attorney-General of the Eastern Cape states that he will not prosecute any police involved in the arrest and detention of Black Consciousness Movement leader Steve Biko

March

• 10 March - Bomb explodes outside the offices of the Bantu Affairs building in Port Elizabeth. One civilian is killed and three injured

April

• 14 April - Former deputy president of the African National Congress in the Transvaal, Abel Mthembu turns state witness at the Pretoria ANC trial

May

• 4 May - South African Defence Force airborne raid on Cassinga, Angola in the Operation Reindeer. See: Battle of Cassinga
  • Ishmael Mkhabela and Lybon Mabasa, two members of the Azanian People's Organisation are arrested in Soweto

August

• 21 August - Marais Viljoen becomes 5th State President of South Africa

September

• Black September episode - The African National Congress attempts to kill about 500 cadres by poisoning their food because an enemy agent had escaped the screening procedures and could not be identified. [1]
• 29 September - PW Botha succeeds Balthazar Johannes Vorster as 9th Prime Minister of South Africa

October

• Balthazar Johannes Vorster becomes 6th State President of South Africa

December

• December - Bomb explodes at the Soweto Community Council offices

Unknown date

• South African Defence Forces attack several South-West Africa People's Organisation bases in Angola during Operation Bruilof
• The South African Defence Force's South African 32 Battalion move into southern Angola to flush out South-West Africa People's Organisation members during Operation Seiljag
• George Bizos becomes a senior member of the Johannesburg Bar
• South Africa's Atomic Energy Corporation built South Africa's first nuclear weapon device

Sport

Motorsport

• 4 March - The South African Grand Prix, is held at Kyalami

Births

• 3 April – John Smit, Springboks rugby player and captain of the 2007 Rugby World Cup champions

Deaths

• Sewsunker "Papwa" Sewgolum, legendary golfer, dies
• 8 January - Richard Turner, activist and academic, is shot dead at his Durban home
• 12 January - Monty Naicker, a medical doctor and prominent politician, dies in Durban
  • Philemon (Duma) Nokwe, the first African advocate of the Supreme Court of Transvaal and politician, dies
• 4 June - Benjamin John Peter Tyamzashe, Xhosa composer, choir conductor and organist, dies in East London