← 1950 1949 1948 1951 in South Africa → 1952 1953 1954
Decades:	1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s
See also:	List of years in South Africa

The following lists events that happened during1951 in South Africa.

• Monarch: KingGeorge VI.
• Governor-General:Ernest George Jansen (starting 1 January).
• Prime Minister:Daniel François Malan.
• Chief Justice:Albert van der Sandt Centlivres.

March

• 30 – TheGroup Areas Act, passed in 1950, becomes law.

May

• 14 – Cabinet votes for the removal of Coloured people from the voters roll.
• 24 – The first part of the Afrikaans DictionaryWoordeboek van die Afrikaanse Taal (WAT) is published, a project which was begun in 1926 by Prof. J.J. Smith of Stellenbosch University.

July

• 29 –Blacks,Coloureds andIndians meet for the first time to discuss a plan of action against race discrimination laws.

August

• 31 – The firstVolkswagen Beetle rolls off the plant inUitenhage.

Unknown date

• Max Theiler,virologist, is awarded theNobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for developing a vaccine foryellow fever, the first South African to receive a Nobel Prize.

• 3 January –Frank Chikane, civil servant, writer and cleric
• 17 February –Patricia De Lille, currentMinister of Public Works and Infrastructure (South Africa) and leader of the political party Good
• 9 March –Helen Zille, federal council chairperson of theDemocratic Alliance (South Africa)
• 26 July –Pieter Mulder, politician and the former leader of theFreedom Front Plus
• 1 December –Nozipho Schroeder, lawn bowler^[1]

• 6 April –Robert Broom, the Scottish paleontologist who discoveredMrs Ples. (b. 1866)
• 23 May –Sefako Makgatho, the 2ndAfrican National Congress president. (b. 1861)
• 14 October –Herman Charles Bosman, writer and journalist. (b. 1905)
• 5 November –Reggie Walker, athlete (b. 1889)
• 28 November –Clements Kadalie, trade unionist. (b. 1896)

• 13 June – Transvaal:Grootvlei to Redan, 39 miles 1 chain (62.8 kilometres).^[2]
• 21 December – Transvaal:Springs to Welgedag, 5 miles 19 chains (8.4 kilometres).^[2]

• 22 December – The first 200 kilometre Dusi Marathon, with four pairs of canoeists taking part, starts on the Umsindusi River which joins theUmgeni River in theValley of a Thousand Hills. Since onlyIan Player stays the course and finishes, it is declared that there is no winner.

• 8 December – TheSpringboks beatIreland 17–5 in Ireland.

• 1951 in South Africa

• All articles with dead external links
• Articles with dead external links from August 2025
• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Use dmy dates from August 2020
• Use South African English from December 2013
• All Wikipedia articles written in South African English