1950 in South Africa
Encyclopedia
May
- 1 May - 18 blacks are killed by police and more than 30 are injured on the WitwatersrandWitwatersrandThe Witwatersrand is a low, sedimentary range of hills, at an elevation of 1700–1800 metres above sea-level, which runs in an east-west direction through Gauteng in South Africa. The word in Afrikaans means "the ridge of white waters". Geologically it is complex, but the principal formations...
in a massive stay-away from work called for by the African National CongressAfrican National CongressThe African National Congress is South Africa's governing Africanist political party, supported by its tripartite alliance with the Congress of South African Trade Unions and the South African Communist Party , since the establishment of non-racial democracy in April 1994. It defines itself as a... - 1 May - Springbok RadioSpringbok RadioSpringbok Radio was a South African radio station that operated from 1950 to 1985.-History:On 1 May 1950, the first commercial radio station in South Africa, Springbok Radio took to the airwaves broadcasting in both English and Afrikaans...
, the SABC's first commercial service, is inaugurated
June
- 24 June - The South Africa national football teamSouth Africa national football teamThe South Africa national football team represents South Africa in association football and is controlled by the South African Football Association, the governing body for football in South Africa. South Africa's home ground is Soccer City, known as FNB Stadium due to a naming rights deal, in...
beats the Australia national football team 3-2 at Kingsmead, DurbanDurbanDurban is the largest city in the South African province of KwaZulu-Natal and the third largest city in South Africa. It forms part of the eThekwini metropolitan municipality. Durban is famous for being the busiest port in South Africa. It is also seen as one of the major centres of tourism...
, in the AustraliaAustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n tour of South Africa
July
- 1 July - The South Africa national football teamSouth Africa national football teamThe South Africa national football team represents South Africa in association football and is controlled by the South African Football Association, the governing body for football in South Africa. South Africa's home ground is Soccer City, known as FNB Stadium due to a naming rights deal, in...
beats the Australia national football team 2-1 at Ellis ParkEllis Park StadiumEllis Park Stadium, also known because of its sponsorship by The Coca-Cola Company as Coca-Cola Park, is a rugby union and association football stadium in the city of Johannesburg, Gauteng Province, South Africa. It hosted the final of the 1995 Rugby World Cup, which was won by the country's...
, JohannesburgJohannesburgJohannesburg also known as Jozi, Jo'burg or Egoli, is the largest city in South Africa, by population. Johannesburg is the provincial capital of Gauteng, the wealthiest province in South Africa, having the largest economy of any metropolitan region in Sub-Saharan Africa...
, in the AustraliaAustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n tour of South Africa - 8 July - The South Africa national football team loses to the Australia national football team 1-2 at Saint George's Park, Port Elizabeth, in the Australian tour of South Africa
- 23 July - The South Africa national football team loses to the Australia national football team 0-2 at Hartley Vale, Cape TownCape TownCape Town is the second-most populous city in South Africa, and the provincial capital and primate city of the Western Cape. As the seat of the National Parliament, it is also the legislative capital of the country. It forms part of the City of Cape Town metropolitan municipality...
, in the Australian tour of South Africa
August
- 5 August - A South African Air ForceSouth African Air ForceThe South African Air Force is the air force of South Africa, with headquarters in Pretoria. It is the world's second oldest independent air force, and its motto is Per Aspera Ad Astra...
squadronSquadron (aviation)A squadron in air force, army aviation or naval aviation is mainly a unit comprising a number of military aircraft, usually of the same type, typically with 12 to 24 aircraft, sometimes divided into three or four flights, depending on aircraft type and air force...
departs for the Korean WarKorean WarThe Korean War was a conventional war between South Korea, supported by the United Nations, and North Korea, supported by the People's Republic of China , with military material aid from the Soviet Union... - 6 August - The municipalityMunicipalityA municipality is essentially an urban administrative division having corporate status and usually powers of self-government. It can also be used to mean the governing body of a municipality. A municipality is a general-purpose administrative subdivision, as opposed to a special-purpose district...
of East London decides not to approve of prospecting for oil off the city's seafront
September
- 26 September - SasolSasolSasol Ltd. is a South African company involved in mining, energy, chemicals and synfuels. In particular, they produce petrol and diesel profitably from coal and natural gas using Fischer-Tropsch process...
(Suid-Afrikaanse Steenkool, Olie en Gaskorporasie Bpk.) is registered as a company
October
- 23 October - Ernest George JansenErnest George JansenErnest George Jansen was the second-last Governor-General of the Union of South Africa, holding office from 1950 to 1959.Born in 1881, he graduated with a law degree from the University of the Cape of Good Hope in 1905, and was admitted as an advocate in 1913.An ardent champion of Afrikaner...
is appointed the 9th Governor-General of the Union of South AfricaGovernor-General of the Union of South AfricaThe Governor-General of the Union of South Africa was the representative of the British and later South African Crown in the Union of South Africa between 31 May 1910 and 31 May 1961...
November
- 2 November - South African AirwaysSouth African AirwaysSouth African Airways is the national flag carrier and largest airline of South Africa, with headquarters in Airways Park on the grounds of OR Tambo International Airport in Kempton Park, Ekurhuleni, Gauteng. The airline flies to 36 destinations worldwide from its hub at OR Tambo International...
inaugurates a daily service between JohannesburgJohannesburgJohannesburg also known as Jozi, Jo'burg or Egoli, is the largest city in South Africa, by population. Johannesburg is the provincial capital of Gauteng, the wealthiest province in South Africa, having the largest economy of any metropolitan region in Sub-Saharan Africa...
and BulawayoBulawayoBulawayo is the second largest city in Zimbabwe after the capital Harare, with an estimated population in 2010 of 2,000,000. It is located in Matabeleland, 439 km southwest of Harare, and is now treated as a separate provincial area from Matabeleland...
, and between Johannesburg and Cape TownCape TownCape Town is the second-most populous city in South Africa, and the provincial capital and primate city of the Western Cape. As the seat of the National Parliament, it is also the legislative capital of the country. It forms part of the City of Cape Town metropolitan municipality...
December
- 13 December - South Africa refuses to place South-West Africa under UN trusteeship
- 21 December - The goldGoldGold is a chemical element with the symbol Au and an atomic number of 79. Gold is a dense, soft, shiny, malleable and ductile metal. Pure gold has a bright yellow color and luster traditionally considered attractive, which it maintains without oxidizing in air or water. Chemically, gold is a...
town of AllanridgeAllanridgeAllanridge is a gold mining town in the Lejweleputswa District Municipality of the Free State province in South Africa. It is the main centre of the Lorraine Gold Mining Company and is dominated by the tall headgear and complex reduction works that processes thousands of tons of gold-bearing ore...
in the Free State Province is established
Unknown date
- Oribi Gorge Nature ReserveOribi GorgeOribi Gorge is situated along the spectacular forest-cloaked ravine of the Mzimkulwana river just west of Port Shepstone which itself is 120 km south of Durban. Oribi Gorge is the eastern gorge of two gorges that cuts through the Oribi Flats , southern KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa...
is proclaimed a protected state forest - H.F. Verwoerd becomes Minister of Native Affairs and implements the forced removal of about 80 000 Africans from Sophiatown, Martindale and Newclare to SowetoSowetoSoweto is a lower-class-populated urban area of the city of Johannesburg in Gauteng, South Africa, bordering the city's mining belt in the south. Its name is an English syllabic abbreviation for South Western Townships...
- The government passes the Immorality Amendment Act, the Group Areas ActGroup Areas ActThe Group Areas Act of 1950 was an act of parliament created under the apartheid government of South Africa on 27th April 1950. The act assigned racial groups to different residential and business sections in urban areas in a system of urban apartheid...
, the Suppression of Communism ActSuppression of Communism ActThe Suppression of Communism Act, No. 44 of 1950 was legislation of the national government in South Africa, passed on June 26 of that year , which formally banned the Communist Party of South Africa and proscribed the ideology of communism, defined by the government as any scheme that aimed "at...
, and the Population Registration ActPopulation Registration ActThe Population Registration Act of 1950 required that each inhabitant of South Africa be classified and registered in accordance with their racial characteristics as part of the system of apartheid. Social rights, political rights, educational opportunities, and economic status were largely...
(which officially divided South Africans into 'White', 'Coloured', 'Asian' or 'Native') - United StatesUnited StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and United KingdomUnited KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
sign a purchasing agreement with South Africa to supply uraniumUraniumUranium is a silvery-white metallic chemical element in the actinide series of the periodic table, with atomic number 92. It is assigned the chemical symbol U. A uranium atom has 92 protons and 92 electrons, of which 6 are valence electrons...
for their nuclearNuclear weaponA nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission or a combination of fission and fusion. Both reactions release vast quantities of energy from relatively small amounts of matter. The first fission bomb test released the same amount...
weapons programmes
Births
- 2 February - Richard Mzamane Mabaso, artistArtistAn artist is a person engaged in one or more of any of a broad spectrum of activities related to creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse is a practitioner in the visual arts only...
, is born in AlexandraAlexandra, GautengAlexandra or Alex for short, nicknamed Gomora is a township located in Gauteng province, South Africa. It is part of Johannesburg, close to the wealthy suburb of Sandton and is bounded by Wynberg on the west, Marlboro and Kelvin on the north, Kew, Lombardy West and Lombardy East on the south...
Deaths
- 9 May - Bhawani Sannyassi Dayal, activist and journalist, dies in AjmerAjmerAjmer , formerly written as Ajmere, is a city in Ajmer District in Rajasthan state in India. Ajmer has a population of around 800,000 , and is located west of the Rajasthan state capital Jaipur, 200 km from Jodhpur, 274 km from Udaipur, 439 km from Jaisalmer, and 391 km from...
, IndiaIndiaIndia , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world... - 11 September - Jan SmutsJan SmutsJan Christiaan Smuts, OM, CH, ED, KC, FRS, PC was a prominent South African and British Commonwealth statesman, military leader and philosopher. In addition to holding various cabinet posts, he served as Prime Minister of the Union of South Africa from 1919 until 1924 and from 1939 until 1948...
dies, at the age of 80, on his family farm of Doornkloof, IreneIrene, GautengIrene is a small township south of Pretoria, Gauteng, South Africa.-Prehistoric inhabitants:Stone arrowheads and tools, discovered in the Hennops River bed and dating back many years prove that people have been living in the area for a very long time....
, near PretoriaPretoriaPretoria is a city located in the northern part of Gauteng Province, South Africa. It is one of the country's three capital cities, serving as the executive and de facto national capital; the others are Cape Town, the legislative capital, and Bloemfontein, the judicial capital.Pretoria is...