# 1976 in South Africa

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The following lists events that happened during 1976 in South Africa.

## Incumbents

* State President: Nico Diederichs.
* Prime Minister: John Vorster.
* Chief Justice: Frans Lourens Herman Rumpff.

## Events
### January

* 5 – The SABC begins the country's first television service.

### March

* 27 – The South African Defence Force withdraws from Angola and concludes Operation Savannah.

### May

* 29 – Eskom announces that it will order two nuclear power stations from France.

### June

* 16 – Student riots break out in Soweto and Hector Pieterson, Hastings Ndlovu and two white officials of the West Rand Board are some of the casualties.
* 23 – Prime Minister John Vorster and United States Secretary of State Henry Kissinger hold talks in West Germany over the Rhodesian issue.

### August

* 25–26 – Prime Minister John Vorster and President of Zambia Kenneth Kaunda meet at Victoria Falls.

### September

* 13 – The Cillié Commission of Inquiry into the 16 June riots in Soweto begins.
* 30 – Michael Lapsley, Anglican priest and social activist, arrives in Lesotho after his visa was not renewed in South Africa.

### October

* 26 – Transkei gains independence from South Africa.

### Unknown date

* Umkhonto we Sizwe's central operations headquarters is established and the process of establishing training camps in Angola begins with the establishment of Gabela Training Camp.

## Births

* 16 January – Jonathan Solomons, South African football player
* 20 January – Ian Syster, long-distance runner (d. 2004)
* 30 January – Kaya Malotana, former rugby player & tv rugby analyst
* February – Johan Thom, visual artist
* 9 February – Colin Moss, actor and TV host
* 22 February – Faan Rautenbach, rugby player
* 2 March – Gaffie du Toit, rugby player
* 5 March – Wayne Denne, field hockey player
* 11 March – Black Coffee (DJ), DJ and record producer
* 30 March – Chantal Botts, badminton player
* 31 March – Thandiswa Mazwai, singer & songwriter
* 2 April – Rory Sabbatini, golfer
* 5 April – David Staniforth, field hockey goalkeeper
* 20 April – Calvin Marlin, football player
* 25 April – Breyton Paulse, rugby player
* 19 May – Zuluboy, rapper & actor
* 12 June – Stewart Carson, badminton player
* 3 July – Bobby Skinstad, Springboks captain
* 1 August – Lucky Lekgwathi, football player
* 24 August – DJ Tira, DJ, Record Producer and Businessman, founder of Afrotainment
* 11 September – Vuyo Dabula, actor
* 13 September – Linda Sokhulu, actress
* 3 October – Carl Beukes, actor
* 14 October – Tokollo Tshabalala, Kwaito musician, most well-known for being a member of music group TKzee
* 19 November – Jane Kurz, synchronised swimmer
* 3 December – Mark Boucher, cricketer
* 15 December – Kabelo Mabalane, Kwaito musician, TV personality & Pastor
* 30 December – Ashley Callie, actress (d. 2008)

## Deaths

* 19 March – Stuart Cloete, novelist, essayist and biographer (b. 1897)
* 26 April – Sid James, South African-born British actor (b. 1913)
* 16 June – Melville Edelstein, sociologist, killed due to Soweto uprising (b. 1919)
* 16 June – Hastings Ndlovu, Soweto uprising casualty (b. 1961)
* 16 June – Hector Pieterson, Soweto uprising casualty (b. 1963)
* 9 September – Ivan Mitford-Barberton, sculptor, writer and herald (b. 1896)
* 6 November – Sydney Skaife, entomologist and naturalist (b. 1889)

## Railways
### Locomotives

Three new Cape gauge locomotive types enter service on the South African Railways:
* March – The first of one hundred Class 35-400 General Electric type U15C diesel-electric locomotives.
* September – The first of one hundred Class 35-600 General Motors Electro-Motive Division type GT18MC diesel-electric locomotives.
* The first of one hundred Class 6E1, Series 6 electric locomotives.