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See also: 2001 in South Africa, other events of 2002, 2002 in South African sport, 2003 in South Africa and the Timeline of South African history.

Events

January

• 29 January - Doctors Without Borders, an international humanitarian organisation, begins importing a cheap, generic version of patented AIDS drugs into South Africa in a direct defiance to South Africa's patent laws

March

• 27 March - Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang approaches the Constitutional Court to stop the issuing of nevirapine
• March - Sivan Pillay, Ed Jordan, Nkhensani Mangani and Karl Anderson are appointed as the first judges of major reality show Coca Cola Popstars, which yields two new pop groups, winners 101 and runners-up Afro Z

April

• 26 April - A South African Air Force Impala jet crashes near the Albasini Dam between Louis Trichardt and Musina killing pilot Captain Brett Burmeister

May

• 20 May - Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang announces at the World Health Assembly in Geneva that South Africa pledges R20 million to the Global Fund to Fight HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria

June

• 16 June - The Hector Pieterson Museum became the first museum to open in Soweto
• 27 June - Two South African Air Force Atlas Oryx helicopters flying from the South African research ship Agulhas took emergency food supplies and evacuated 21 Russian scientists from the German-owned Magdalena Oldendorff which was trapped in ice off Antarctica since 16 June

July

• 15 July - Nelson Mandela calls on government and business leaders worldwide to find ways to provide access to treatment to those people living with HIV/AIDS

August

• 8 August - The government announces the go-ahead for an anti-retroviral roll-out plan
• 9 August - Ed Fagan leds a $50bn class action suit by a few apartheid-era victims against international firms and banks who profited from dealings with apartheid government
• 25 August - The Medicines Control Council threatens to de-register Nevirapine unless further studies and appropriate documentation can show its efficacy in the prevention of mother to child transmission of HIV

September

• 15 September - Johan Pretorius, Boeremag member, is arrested and charged when he was found with a truckload of weapons and explosives in Lichtenburg
• 20 September - Boeremag members, Dirk Hanekom and Henk van Zyl, are arrested in Memel, Free State but only Hanekom is charged
• 22 September - The South African Air Force Museum's only flying T-6G Harvard crashes into power lines during a flypast at the Africa Aerospace and Defence 2002 being held at AFB Waterkloof, Pretoria. Pilot Col Jeff Earle escaped with minor injuries.

October

• 10 October - State President of South Africa Thabo Mbeki states that AIDS drugs are dangerously toxic to people and questions whether HIV or poverty is the true cause of Aids
• 30 October - 9 bombs explode in Soweto and 1 in Bronkhorstspruit. The Boeremag claims responsibility

November

• 4 November - Alleged Boeremag leader Tom Vorster arrested in Pretoria for the October bombings
• 22 November - A bomb explodes at the Grand Central Airport in Midrand, Gauteng
• 28 November - A bomb explodes on a bridge on the border between KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape Provinces

December

• 16 - 20 December - The African National Congress holds their 51st National Conference in Stellenbosch

Unknown date

• Mbongeni Ngema's controversial song, AmaNdiya is banned

Sport

Athletics

• The national marathon championships are not held

Births

Deaths

• 26 April - Steve Tshwete, activist and politician
• 15 May - Nellie Shabalala, wife of Ladysmith Black Mambazo leader and founder Joseph Shabalala
• 1 June - Hansie Cronje dies in a plane crash in the mountains near George