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

• 13,14 – Durban riots against Indians

• 29 – South Africa introduces its apartheid policy.

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

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

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

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

• The University of Pretoria establishes the Graduate School of Management, 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.
• 8 April – Fanie de Jager, operatic tenor.
• 29 April – Pravin Gordhan, national minister
• 23 May – Estian Calitz, academic.
• 2 June – Michael Lapsley, Anglican priest and activist.
• 17 July – Bill Faure, film director.
• 19 July – Kgalema Motlhanthe, politician, former President of South Africa.
• 23 July – Clive Rice, cricketer.
• 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

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

• Bobby Locke tied with Harry Bradshaw both scored 283.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.

• Eric Sturgess & Sheila Summers became the South Africa's first Wimbledon champions when they beat John Bromwich & Louis Brough, 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.