- 1978 in South Africa
"See also:"
1977 in South Africa ,
other events of 1978,1979 in South Africa and theTimeline of South African history .----
Events
January
* Former
African National Congress member, Steve Mtshali who turned state witness in various trials is shot and woundedFebruary
* An unexploded bomb "capable of destroying a 22 storey building" is found in a
Johannesburg office block and defused
*2 February - Guerrillas attack the Daveyton police station
**Kaiser Matanzima breaks all diplomatic ties with South Africa and announces that allSouth African Defence Force members seconded to the Transkei Army will leaveTranskei by31 March
** The Attorney-General of theEastern Cape states that he will not prosecute anypolice involved in the arrest and detention ofBlack Consciousness Movement leaderSteve Biko March
*
10 March - Bomb explodes outside the offices of the Bantu Affairs building inPort Elizabeth . One civilian is killed and three injuredApril
*
14 April - Former deputy president of the African National Congress in theTransvaal , Abel Mthembu turns state witness at thePretoria ANC trialMay
*
4 May -South African Defence Force airborne raid onCassinga ,Angola in theOperation Reindeer . "See:Battle of Cassinga "
**Ishmael Mkhabela andLybon Mabasa , two members of theAzanian People's Organisation are arrested inSoweto August
*
21 August -Marais Viljoen becomes 5thState President of South Africa eptember
* Black September episode - The African National Congress attempts to kill about 500 cadres by poisoning their food because an enemy agent had escaped the screening procedures and could not be identified.Fact|date=December 2007
*29 September - PW Botha succeeds Balthazar Johannes Vorster as 9thPrime Minister of South Africa October
* Balthazar Johannes Vorster becomes 6th
State President of South Africa December
* December - Bomb explodes at the
Soweto Community Council officesUnknown date
*
South African Defence Force s attack severalSouth-West Africa People's Organisation bases inAngola duringOperation Bruilof
* The South African Defence Force'sSouth African 32 Battalion move into southern Angola to flush out South-West Africa People's Organisation members duringOperation Seiljag
*George Bizos becomes a senior member of the Johannesburg Bar
* South Africa's Atomic Energy Corporation built South Africa's first nuclearweapon deviceport
Motorsport
*
4 March - The South African Grand Prix, is held atKyalami Births
*
3 April –John Smit , Springboks rugby player and captain of the2007 Rugby World Cup championsDeaths
*
Sewsunker "Papwa" Sewgolum , legendary golfer, dies
*8 January - Richard Turner, activist and academic, is shot dead at hisDurban home
*12 January -Monty Naicker , amedical doctor and prominentpolitician , dies in Durban
** Philemon (Duma) Nokwe, the first Africanadvocate of the Supreme Court of Transvaal andpolitician , dies
*4 June -Benjamin John Peter Tyamzashe ,Xhosa composer, choir conductor and organist, dies in East London
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