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The following lists events that happened during 1918 in South Africa.

Incumbents

  • Monarch: King George V.
  • Governor-General and High Commissioner for Southern Africa: The Viscount Buxton.
  • Prime Minister: Louis Botha.
  • Chief Justice: James Rose Innes

Events

  • An estimated 50 people die in the 1918 flu pandemic in South Africa, the fifth hardest hit country in the world.

;January

  • 8 &ndash; The Koöperatiewe Wijnbouwers Vereniging van Zuid-Afrika (KWV) is founded in Paarl.

;April

  • 2 &ndash; Victoria College becomes the Stellenbosch University.

;May

  • 14 &ndash; The Three Minute Pause, initiated by the daily firing of the Noon Gun on Signal Hill, is instituted by Cape Town Mayor Sir Harry Hands.

;June

  • 4 &ndash; RMS Kenilworth Castle, one of the Union-Castle Line steamships, collides with her escort destroyer HMS Rival while trying to avoid her other escort, the cruiser HMS Kent.
  • 5 &ndash; The Afrikaner Broederbond, a confidential cultural organisation, is founded in Johannesburg.

;November

  • 14 &ndash; German East African troops are informed of the armistice on 11 November.
  • 25 &ndash; General Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck, commander of German forces in the German East Africa campaign, signs a ceasefire at Abercorn in Northern Rhodesia.

Births

  • 14 January (in Mozambique) &ndash; Dimitri Tsafendas, assassin (d. 1999)
  • 21 January &ndash; Frederick Guy Butler, poet, academic and writer. (d. 2001)
  • 1 July &ndash; Ahmed Deedat, Sunni Muslim missionary. (d. 2005)
  • 13 July &ndash; Larry Taylor, actor. (d. 2003)
  • 16 July &ndash; John (Jack) Frost, Second World War fighter pilot. (d. MIA 1942)
  • 18 July &ndash; Nelson Mandela, activist and President of South Africa. (d. 2013)
  • 27 August – Alina Lekgetha, nurse, chairman of South African Nursing Association and politician. (d. 1992)

Deaths

  • 5 December &ndash; Schalk Willem Burger, Boer officer, lawyer, politician and statesman. (b. 1852)

Railways

Railway lines opened

thumb|[[South African Class 15B 4-8-2|Class 15B]]

thumb|[[South African Class MJ1 2-6-6-0|Class MJ1]]

  • 2 February &ndash; Cape &ndash; Kootjieskolk to Calvinia, .
  • 16 September &ndash; Cape &ndash; Kootjieskolk to Sakrivier, .
  • The first of thirty Class 15B 4-8-2 Mountain type locomotives.