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See also: 1984 in South Africa, other events of 1985, 1986 in South Africa and the Timeline of South African history.

Events

January

• Three guerrillas and a policeman are killed in a skirmish near Nongoma
• 31 January - Pieter Willem Botha, State President of South Africa offers a release proposal to jailed African National Congress leader Nelson Mandela
  • Dr Gerrit Viljoen, Minister of Cooperation and Development announces that the forced removal of Blacks will be suspended

February

• 9 February - Explosion damages the Old Defence Force offices in Marshall Street, Johannesburg
• 10 February - Nelson Mandela, African National Congress leader, rejects Pieter Willem Botha's offer of conditional release

March

• A Limpet mine destroys a police vehicle in Mamelodi
• Two guerrillas are killed and one captured in the Eastern Transvaal
• A grenade attack on unnamed special branch policeman's home in Tembisa
• 21 March - Seventeen people are killed when police open fire at the twenty-fifth commemoration of the Sharpeville Massacre demonstration marches in Langa, Port Elizabeth
• 22 March - Two guerrillas are killed in Bosbokrand
• 27 March - Over 200 people are arrested for marching through Cape Town to Pollsmoor Prison protesting for the release of Nelson Mandela, including two clerics, Beyers Naudé and Allan Boesak who led the march

April

• 30 April - The Rand Daily Mail, a leading anti-apartheid newspaper, ceases publication

May

• 2 May - An explosion rocks the building housing the gold mining companies of Anglo American and Anglovaal in Johannesburg and cause R170,000 worth of structural damage. Both companies are engaged in mass dismissals of mine workers
• 9 May - Two grenade attacks in Pretoria townships
• 15 May - Three explosions damage the Brakpan Police barracks
  • Guerrillas attack the buildings of the Brakpan Commissioners court and offices of Messenger of the court
  • Funeral of Andries Raditsela, an Umkhonto we Sizwe member who had died in detention
• 28 May or 30 May - A Limpet mine causes structural damage to the Military Medical Centre in Hillbrow, Johannesburg (sources give different dates)
• 31 May - Guerrillas attack the Southern Cross Fund offices and injure 14 people

June

• Three limpet mines explode at Natalia Development Board buildings in Lamontville
• Three limpet mines explode at the Umlazi Police station in Durban
• An eskom sub-station in Durban is damaged by explosion
• A bomb damages the offices of AECI which is involved in a labour dispute
• An Explosion destroys Transkei Development Corporation bulk fuel depot in Umtata. It disrupts the water and power supplies to the town
• Guerrillas throw petrol bombs and hand grenades at the home of Amichand Rajbansi
• A policeman who fired on a crowd is killed by alleged insurgents in Mmabatho
• 14 June - South African Army raid houses and offices of Umkhonto we Sizwe, killing 12 activists, in what is known as Operation Plecksy

July

• Limpet mines destroy a sub-station in Durban
• The Soweto group dubbed the Suicide Squad attacks home of two Soweto policemen
• A hand grenade is thrown at a bakery in Umlazi, Durban where workers were on strike
• A hand grenade is thrown at the former community councillor in Gugulethu
• At a police roadblock near East London, two guerrillas and a policeman are killed in a shootout
• 2 - 6 July - The African National Congress hold their second national consultative conference in Kabwe, Zambia

August

• A hand grenade is thrown into the home of MP Barend Andrews
• A hand grenade is thrown into the home of a Mamelodi policeman
• Three limpet mines explode in department stores in Durban, causing limited damage and no injuries
• A bomb explodes in a night club at an Umlazi hotel, Durban and 30 children are injured
• 2 August - At a roadblock near Mount Ruth, two guerrillas and a policeman is killed
• 10 August - Police defuse a limpet mine found on a petrol/gas bowser at a fuel depot in East London

September

• Trevor Manuel is detained by police, he is then banned until 1990, but it was lifted 1986
• 27-28 September - Limpet mines damages the basement of OK Bazaars in Smith Street, Game Stores and Checkers, all supermarkets in central Durban. A Limpet mine is defused in Spar, central Durban

October

• The home of a Umlazi school headmaster is attacked with a hand grenade
• Limpet mine detonates whilst being armed killing Zinto Cele, Mandlenkosi Ndimande and injuring Sibusiso Mazibuko - Grosvener Girls School, Bluff, Durban on 24 October 1985

November

• Four people killed in 20 hand grenade attacks in the Cape Town region
• A bomb damages a central Johannesburg building housing Institute of Bankers
• Sasol 2 and 3 come under rocket attack and three guerrillas are killed by police
• An anti-tank mine explodes in the Soutpansberg area and four defence force members and four others injured
• Four guerrillas are killed and two injured by Bophutatswana Police
• A building housing the Institute of Bankers in central Johannesburg is damaged in a blast
• A hand grenade explodes at a Barclays National Bank branch in Woodstock, Cape Town

December

• A limpet mine explodes at 18h00 and causes structural damage to the Chatsworth Magistrates Court outside Durban
• A grenade is thrown at a tourist kombi in central Durban
• 8 December - The Chesterville home of a policeman is bombed
• 13 December - A South African Army anti-mine troop carrier detonates an anti-tank mine in Messina, one soldier injured
• 14 December - A guerrilla is killed in Chiawelo
• 15 December - Five people are killed and five injured (three of the dead were children aged two, eight and ten) when their vehicle detonates an anti-tank mine on the Chatsworth farm near Messina. A one-year-old boy survived the blast
• 17 December - A limpet mine explodes at 03h00 and damages eight buses belonging to PUTCO at their Fleetline depot in Umlazi, Durban
• 19 December - A farmer is injured when his vehicle hits an anti-tank mine in the Weipe area
• 20 December - The South African Army carries out a raid into Maseru, Lesotho
• 21 December - A limpet mine attached to minibus injures 8 or 13 people
• 23 December - A bomb explodes in an Amanzimtoti shopping centre which kills five people and injures 40 others. Andrew Zondo, is later arrested for the bomb, claims that he attempted to warn the mall but failed. He was later hanged.
• 29 December - the police defuse a pamphlet bomb in Durban

Unknown date

• George Bizos becomes a judge on Botswana's Court of Appeal
• The Delmas Treason Trial starts with the State vs Patrick Lekota and Popo Molefe
• Mimi Coertse receives the Decoration for Meritorious Service in recognition of the contribution to the Arts
• Bulelani Ngcuka is released from jail
• Bulelani Ngcuka joins the human rights branch of International Labour Organisation in Geneva, Switzerland

Sport

Athletics

• 4 May – Mark Plaatjes wins his second national title in the men's marathon, clocking 2:08:58 in Port Elizabeth.

Motorsport

• 19 October – The South African Grand Prix is held at Kyalami

Deaths

• 3 May - Cythna Lindenberg Letty, a botanical artist and author, dies in Pretoria
• 5 May - Sipho Mutsi (20), a Congress of South African Students member, dies in police custody
• 6 May - Andries Raditsela (29), Congress of South African Trade Unions and Chemical Workers' Industrial Union member, dies of head injuries after being violently confronted by police
• 14 May - Vernon Nkadimeng, is killed by a car bomb in Gaborone, Botswana
• 14 June - Thamsanga Mnyele, artist and activist, is killed during a South African Army in Gaborone
• August - Bill Mentoor, becomes the first person to be necklaced (a car tire filled with petrol and placed over a person's neck and set alight) in Queenstown, Eastern Cape
• 15 December - Ruben Xulu, artist, dies at Mariannhill outside Durban