← 1975 1974 1973 1976 in South Africa → 1977 1978 1979
Decades:	1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s
See also:	List of years in South Africa

The following lists events that happened during1976 in South Africa.

• State President:Nico Diederichs.^[1]
• Prime Minister:John Vorster.
• Chief Justice:Frans Lourens Herman Rumpff.

January

• 5 – TheSABC begins the country's firsttelevision service.

March

• 27 – TheSouth African Defence Force withdraws fromAngola and concludesOperation Savannah.

May

• 29 –Eskom announces that it will order twonuclearpower stations from France.

June

• 16 –Student riots break out inSoweto andHector Pieterson,Hastings Ndlovu and two white officials of the West Rand Board are some of the casualties.^[2]
• 23 –Prime MinisterJohn Vorster andUnited States Secretary of StateHenry Kissinger hold talks in West Germany over theRhodesian issue.

August

• 25–26 –Prime MinisterJohn Vorster andPresident of ZambiaKenneth Kaunda meet atVictoria Falls.

September

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

October

• 26 –Transkei gains independence fromSouth Africa.

Unknown date

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

• 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^[3]
• 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 groupTKzee
• 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)

• 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)

Three new Cape gauge locomotive types enter service on theSouth African Railways:

• March – The first of one hundredClass 35-400 General Electric type U15C diesel-electric locomotives.^[4][5][6]
• September – The first of one hundredClass 35-600 General Motors Electro-Motive Division type GT18MC diesel-electric locomotives.^[4][5][6]
• The first of one hundredClass 6E1, Series 6 electric locomotives.^[5][6]

• 1976 in South African television

• 1976 in South Africa
• 1976 by country
• Years in South Africa

• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Use dmy dates from April 2020
• Use South African English from May 2012
• All Wikipedia articles written in South African English