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← 2003 2002 2001 2004 in South Africa → 2005 2006 2007
Decades:	1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s 2020s
See also:	2004 in South African sport List of years in South Africa

The following lists events that happened during2004 in South Africa.

• President:Thabo Mbeki.^[1]
• Deputy President:Jacob Zuma.
• Chief Justice:Arthur Chaskalson.

The Cabinet, together with thePresident and theDeputy President, forms part of the Executive.

• Eastern Cape Province:Makhenkesi Stofile (until 26 April),Nosimo Balindlela (since 26 April)
• Free State Province:Winkie Direko (until 26 April),Beatrice Marshoff (since 26 April)
• Gauteng Province:Mbhazima Shilowa
• KwaZulu-Natal Province:Lionel Mtshali (until 26 April),S'bu Ndebele (since 26 April)
• Limpopo Province:
  • until 22 April:Ngoako Ramathlodi
  • 22 April-26 April:Catherine Mabuza
  • since 26 April:Sello Moloto
• Mpumalanga Province:Ndaweni Mahlangu (until 26 April),Thabang Makwetla (since 26 April)
• North West Province:Popo Molefe (until 30 April),Edna Molewa (since 30 April)
• Northern Cape Province:Manne Dipico (until 30 April),Elizabeth Dipuo Peters (since 30 April)
• Western Cape Province:
  • until 23 April:Marthinus van Schalkwyk
  • 23 April-30 April:Leonard Ramatlakane
  • since 30 April:Ebrahim Rasool

January

• 1 –Asher Karni, anIsraeli and South African businessman fromSea Point who is alleged to have supplied nuclear technology toPakistan, is arrested atDenver International Airport, Colorado.

March

• 7 – 64 suspectedmercenaries are arrested atHarare, Zimbabwe. 20 of them are South African including their leader,Simon Mann, a formerBritish Army officer and security expert.^[2]
• Building of the new Giriyondo Border Post between South Africa andMozambique in theGreat Limpopo Transfrontier Park begins.^[3]

April

• 14 – Thethird democratic elections are held and won by theAfrican National Congress.
• 16 – A set of shell beads, estimated to be 75,000 years old, is discovered at the excavations at Blombos cave nearStilbaai in theWestern Cape.

May

•On 15 May 2004, South Africa won the bid to host the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

June

• Nelson Mandela announces he is "retiring from retirement".

July

• 1 – ASouth African Air ForceOryx helicopter crash lands near theJohannesburg International Airport, with no fatalities.
• 6 – A South African Air ForceSE-316B Alouette III helicopter crash lands atGrahamstown, with no fatalities.
• Avian influenza is diagnosed inostriches in theEastern Cape andWestern Cape.

August

• 23 –SAS Mendi, aValour-classfrigate, andHMS Nottingham, aType 42 destroyer, meet at the site where theWorld War I troopshipSS Mendi sank. Wreaths are laid in remembrance to those who died in service of their country.
• 25 – SirMark Thatcher, son of formerBritish Prime MinisterMargaret Thatcher, is arrested at his home inCape Town for his alleged involvement in theEquatorial Guinea coup plot.
• 27 –Simon Mann, formerBritish Army officer, security expert andmercenary, is found guilty of attempting to buy arms for the alleged Equatorial Guinea coup plot and is sentenced to 7 years imprisonment, while the 66 co-accused are acquitted.

September

• 1 – Six people are killed and more than 100 are injured in a gas explosion in theSasol synthetic fuel plant inSecunda.
• 9 – The first locally assembledAgusta A109 light utility helicopter makes its first flight atDenel'sKempton Park facilities.

December

• 15 – South Africa announces that it will buy theAirbus A400M transport aircraft.
• 26 – 17South Africans are among the victims of the2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.

• 13 March –Dullah Omar, lawyer and politician. (b. 1934)
• 9 May –Brenda Fassie, singer. (b. 1964)
• 27 May –Nimrod Sejake, activist. (b. 1920)
• 7 September –Beyers Naudé,cleric,theologian and activist. (b. 1915)
• 12 September –Rachel Simons, communist trade unionist. (b. 1914)
• 12 December –Phaswane Mpe, poet and novelist. (b. 1970)
• 25 December –Ian Syster, long-distance runner. (b. 1976)

• The team ofRoland Schoeman,Lyndon Ferns,Darian Townsend andRyk Neethling wins the gold medal at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, simultaneously breaking the world record in the 4x100 freestyle relay. Shoeman, Ferns and Neethling trained at the University of Arizona.

• 2005 in South African television

• 2004 in South Africa
• 2004 by country
• Years in South Africa

• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Articles lacking in-text citations from August 2024
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• Use dmy dates from April 2020
• Use South African English from December 2013
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