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The following lists events that happened during 1949 in South Africa.

Incumbents

  • Monarch: King George VI.
  • Governor-General and High Commissioner for Southern Africa: Gideon Brand van Zyl.
  • Prime Minister: Daniel François Malan.
  • Chief Justice: Ernest Frederick Watermeyer.

Events

;January

  • 13,14 – Durban riots against Indians

;June

  • 29 – South Africa introduces its apartheid policy.

;July

  • 1 – The Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act, 1949, Act No. 55 of 1949, is passed.

;October

  • 30 – Ben Schoeman announces in Johannesburg that the NP would carry the apartheid policy through "notwithstanding what serious economic problems it might cause".

;November

  • 1 – Seretse Khama and his British wife Ruth Williams Khama are declared forbidden in South Africa.

;December

  • 16 – The Voortrekker Monument is officially inaugurated in Pretoria.

;Unknown date

  • The University of Pretoria establishes the Graduate School of Management (GSM), the first MBA programme to be launched outside of North America.
  • The South African Post Office begins to force Europeans and non-Europeans to stand in separate queues in post offices and serve them at different counters.

Births

  • 27 January – Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, politician.
  • 29 January – Eugene de Kock, South African Police colonel and assassin.
  • 26 March – Rudi Koertzen, cricket umpire (d. 2022)
  • 8 April – Fanie de Jager, operatic tenor.
  • 12 April – Pravin Gordhan, national minister (d. 2024)
  • 23 May – Estian Calitz, academic.
  • 2 June – Michael Lapsley, Anglican priest and activist.
  • 14 June
  • Niel Barnard, intelligence chief (d. 2025)
  • Antony Sher, actor (d. 2021)
  • 17 July – William C. Faure, film director. (d. 1994)
  • 19 July – Kgalema Motlhanthe, politician, former President of South Africa.
  • 23 July – Clive Rice, cricketer. (d. 2015)
  • 21 October – Morne du Plessis, Springboks captain & rugby administrator.
  • 24 November – Neall Ellis, helicopter pilot and mercenary.
  • 28 November – Nosimo Balindlela, politician.

Deaths

  • 4 May – Hendrik Adolph Mulder, poet and Afrikaans literary critic.

Railways

thumb|[[South African Class 24 2-8-4|Class 24]]

Locomotives

  • The South African Railways places the first of one hundred Class 24 2-8-4 Berkshire type branchline steam locomotives in service, most of them on the South West Africa System.

Sport

7.1 Golf

  • Bobby Locke tied with Harry Bradshaw (Ireland) both scored 283 (−5).Bobby Locke then won the 36 holes play-off by 12 shots. British Open championship. Royal St. Georges Golf Club. Sandwich. 6–9 July 1949.

7.2 Tennis

  • Eric Sturgess & Sheila Summers became the South Africa's first Wimbledon champions when they beat John Bromwich (Australia) & Louis Brough (USA), 8–7, 9–11, 7–5, to win the mixed doubles final.
  • Eric Sturgess was awarded the Helms Trophy as the best athlete of the African continent.

References