1982 in South Africa

Incumbents

• State President: Marais Viljoen.
• Prime Minister: P.W. Botha.
• Chief Justice: Frans Lourens Herman Rumpff then Pieter Jacobus Rabie.

  Events

• 7 - A bomb damages the office of the West Rand Administration Board in Soweto.
• 8 - Umkhonto we Sizwe guerrillas attack Koeberg nuclear power plant in Cape Town.
• 11 - The United Nations Special Committee against Apartheid launches the International Year of Mobilisation for Sanctions against South Africa.

• 15 - Four COSAS-Members are bombed by the Security Branch under orders of Brigadier Schoon at a mine dump outside Kagiso. Three die and one is injured.
• 18 - The South African Navy frigate sinks with the loss of 16 lives after colliding with.
• 24 - Andries Treurnicht and another 22 National Party MPs vote for no confidence in Prime Minister P.W. Botha.
• South Africa and Swaziland sign a non-aggression pact.

• 6 - F.W. de Klerk replaces Andries Treurnicht as leader of the National Party in the Transvaal.
• 9-14 - The South African Defence Force's Operation Super takes place.
• 14 - A bomb explodes at the African National Congress headquarters in London.
• 20 - A bomb explodes at the Langa Commissioners Court.

• 30 - Prime Minister P.W. Botha and President of Zambia Kenneth Kaunda meet on the Botswana border to discuss the political situation in South West Africa and South Africa.

• 12 - A bomb damages the office of the West Rand Administration Board in Soweto for the second time.
• 21 - A bomb explodes at the offices of the Department of Coloured Affairs in Pinetown near Durban.
• 28 - A fuel depot and power transformer in Hectorspruit is damaged by a limpet mine.

• 3 - A bomb damages the railway near Dube in Soweto.
• 4 - One person is killed when a bomb explodes in a lift at the offices of the Presidents Council in Cape Town.
• 28 - The railway depot at Vryheid is damaged in an explosion.
• 28 - In Scheepersnek, two bombs cause extensive damage to the railway depot, pump station, stores and vehicles.
• 28 - The Durban-Witwatersrand oil pipeline is damaged by a bomb.

• In Port Elizabeth the police station commander's office and New Law Courts are damaged in an attack.

• 28 - The Umvoti Mounted Rifles base in Red Hill, Durban is attacked.

• 24 - Umkhonto we Sizwe places explosives on a railway bridge near Upington that fails to detonate.
• Two insurgents are killed by police in Boksburg.

• 26 - Three bombs explode at the Drakensberg Administration offices in Pietermaritzburg.
• A special branch policeman and an insurgent are killed in a skirmish in KwaZulu-Natal.

• 8 - A bomb causes severe damage at the Mobil fuel storage depot in Mkuze.
• 20-21 - Umkhonto we Sizwe uses RPG-7s to attack a rural police station and temporary South African Army garrison at Tonga.

• 10 - The South African Defence Force stages a pre-dawn raid on houses inhabited by African National Congress in Maseru, Lesotho.
• 16 - The United Freedom Front bombs offices of South African Airways in Elmont, NY and IBM in Harrison, NY.
• 18-19 - Four explosions cause massive damage at the Koeberg nuclear power station just north of Cape Town.
• 31 - A bomb damages the Johannesburg Magistrates court 200m from John Vorster Square.
• One person is killed and 70 injured in a bomb blast at the Southern Free State Administration Board in Bloemfontein.

• Bulelani Ngcuka is jailed for three years for refusing to give evidence in the political trial of Patrick Maqubele and others.

  Births

• 2 January - Ricky Januarie, rugby player.
• 8 March - Brett Evans, football player.
• 17 March - Steven Pienaar, football player.
• 18 March - Sisanda Henna, producer, director, and actor.
• 24 March - Fourie du Preez, rugby player.
• 2 May - Johan Botha, cricketer.
• 18 May - Katlego Mashego, football player.
• 11 June - Chere Burger, dressage rider.
• 9 June - Reneilwe Letsholonyane, football player.
• 25 July - Monde Zondeki, cricketer
• 27 August - Khuli Chana, Motswako rapper.
• 6 October - Gio Aplon, rugby player.
• 19 October - Louis Oosthuizen, golfer.
• 21 October - Thapelo Mokoena, actor.
• 16 November - Jannie du Plessis, rugby player.
• 9 December - Lee-Ann Liebenberg, model. She is notable as 2005 FHM-South Africa's Sexiest Woman In the World.
• 22 December - Teko Modise, football player.

  Deaths

• 5 February - Neil Aggett, trade unionist and activist.
• 29 March - H. Selby Msimang, journalist and activist.
• 16 July - Charles Robberts Swart, last Governor-General and first State President.
• 17 August - Ruth First, anti-apartheid activist and scholar.
• 20 August - Walter Battiss, artist.

  Railways

Locomotives

• The first of fifty-five Class 6E1, Series 10 electric locomotives.
• Twenty-five 25 kV AC Class 7E2, Series 1 electric locomotives.
• The first of six Class 9E, Series 2 General Electric Company 50 kV AC electric locomotives on the Sishen-Saldanha iron ore line.

  Sports

Athletics

• 16 October - Gabashane Rakabaele wins his third national title in the men's marathon in Durban.

  Motorsport

• 23 January - The South African Grand Prix takes place at Kyalami.