1901 in South Africa

The following lists events that happened during 1901 in South Africa.

Incumbents

Governor of the Cape of Good Hope and High Commissioner for Southern Africa:Alfred Milner then Walter Hely-Hutchinson (governor from 6 March but not high commissioner).
Prime Minister of the Cape of Good Hope: John Gordon Sprigg.

Governor of the Colony of Natal: Charles Bullen Hugh Mitchell (until 6 May), Henry Edward McCallum (starting 6 May).
Prime Minister of the Colony of Natal: Albert Henry Hime.

State President of the Orange Free State: Martinus Theunis Steyn.
Administrator of British-occupied Orange River Colony and UK High Commissioner for Southern Africa: Alfred Milner, 1st Viscount Milner.

State President of the South African Republic: Paul Kruger (in exile); Schalk Willem Burger (acting).
Administrator of British-occupied Transvaal and UK High Commissioner for Southern Africa: Alfred Milner, 1st Viscount Milner.

;January

9 – Herbert Kitchener reports that Christiaan de Wet has shot a British peace envoy and flogged two more who had gone to his commando to ask the Burghers to halt fighting.
15 – HMS Sybille, a 3,400-ton , strikes a reef about south of Lamberts Bay.
31 – General Jan Smuts and his commandos capture Modderfontein.

;February

1 – Bubonic plague breaks out in Cape Town.
26 – The Middelburg peace conference fails as Boers continue to demand autonomy.

;May

31 – Officially unrecognized Zulu king Dinuzulu kaCetshwayo refuses British instructions to take up arms against the Boers.

;June

18 – Emily Hobhouse reports on the high mortality and cruel conditions in the Second Boer War concentration camps
25 – Boer armies invaded the Cape Colony and attacked the British settlement of Richmond for a day, then retreated as British forces approached.

;July

2–6 – Nine Boer prisoners-of-war are murdered by Australian members of the Bushveldt Carbineers in the Spelonken area near Louis Trichardt.
16 – The Fawcett Commission is established to look at living conditions of women and children, including water supply, sanitation, medical care and the mortality and birth rates in the concentration camps.

;August

4 – Lieutenant-general Paul Methuen destroys the village of Schweizer-Reneke under the British scorched earth policy.
20 – General Koos de la Rey's 84-year-old mother is sent to a concentration camp at Klerksdorp.

;September

17 – Commandant-General Louis Botha and General Cecil "Cherry" Cheere Emmett join forces to invade Natal.

;October

;November

1 – Standard Bank opens its second branch in Johannesburg on Eloff Street.
9 – The electric tramline in Cape Town is extended from Sea Point to Camps Bay.
18 – Boer commandos invade the Cape Colony and come to within 50 miles of Cape Town.

;December

22 – On Peace Sunday Charles Frederic Aked (1864–1941), a Baptist minister in Liverpool, says: "Great Britain cannot win the battles without resorting to the last despicable cowardice of the most loathsome cur on earth; the act of striking a brave man's heart through his wife's honour and his child's life. The cowardly war has been conducted by methods of barbarism... the concentration camps have been Murder Camps." A crowd follows him home and breaks the windows of his house.
27 July – Natal – Mtwalume to North Shepstone, .

;Cape

Six new Cape gauge locomotive types enter service on the Cape Government Railways (CGR):
Six 4-4-0 3rd Class Wynberg Tender locomotives in suburban service in Cape Town.
Eight redesigned American-built 6th Class 4-6-0 steam locomotives. In 1912 they would be designated South African Class 6G 4-6-0| on the South African Railways (SAR).
The first of sixteen 8th Class 2-8-0| Consolidation type locomotives. In 1912 they would be designated Class 8X on the SAR.
The Namaqua Copper Company acquires its first locomotive, a 0-4-2 saddle-tank shunting engine named Pioneer.

;Natal

The Natal Government Railways (NGR) rebuilds one of its Class G tank locomotives to a Class H Pacific wheel arrangement. In 1912 it would be designated Class C1 on the SAR.
The Zululand Railway Company, contracted for the construction of the line from Verulam to Tugela River, acquires one 2-6-2 tank locomotive.