The following lists events that happened during 1918 in South Africa.
Incumbents Monarch: King George V. Governor-General and High Commissioner for Southern Africa: The Viscount Buxton.Archontology.org: A Guide for Study of Historical Offices: South Africa: Governors-General: 1910-1961 (Accessed on 14 April 2017) Prime Minister: Louis Botha. Chief Justice: James Rose Innes
Events An estimated 50 people die in the 1918 flu pandemic in South Africa, the fifth hardest hit country in the world.Colds and flu: 1918 - South Africa's death toll (Accessed on 17 April 2017)
January 8 – The Koöperatiewe Wijnbouwers Vereniging van Zuid-Afrika (KWV) is founded in Paarl.
April 2 – Victoria College becomes the Stellenbosch University.
May 14 – The Three Minute Pause, initiated by the daily firing of the Noon Gun on Signal Hill, is instituted by Cape Town Mayor Sir Harry Hands.Royal Canadian Legion Branch # 138. "2-Minute Wave of Silence" Revives a Time-honoured Tradition . Accessed on 5 June 2014.
June 4 – RMS Kenilworth Castle, one of the Union-Castle Line steamships, collides with her escort destroyer HMS Rival while trying to avoid her other escort, the cruiser HMS Kent. 5 – The Afrikaner Broederbond, a confidential cultural organisation, is founded in Johannesburg.
November 14 – German East African troops are informed of the armistice on 11 November. 25 – General Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck, commander of German forces in the German East Africa campaign, signs a ceasefire at Abercorn in Northern Rhodesia.
Births 14 January (in Mozambique) – Dimitri Tsafendas, assassin (d. 1999)Beresford, David (11 October 1999), Obituary: Long-jailed assassin of South African premier in The Guardian. Archived by WebCite at Retrieved 8 July 2009. 21 January – Frederick Guy Butler, poet, academic and writer. (d. 2001) 1 July – Ahmed Deedat, Sunni Muslim missionary. (d. 2005) 13 July – Larry Taylor, actor. (d. 2003) 16 July – John (Jack) Frost, Second World War fighter pilot. (d. MIA 1942) 18 July – Nelson Mandela, activist and President of South Africa. (d. 2013) 27 August – Alina Lekgetha, nurse, chairman of South African Nursing Association and politician. (d. 1992)
Deaths 5 December – Schalk Willem Burger, Boer officer, lawyer, politician and statesman. (b. 1852)
Railways
Railway lines opened
2 February – Cape – Kootjieskolk to Calvinia, .Statement Showing, in Chronological Order, the Date of Opening and the Mileage of Each Section of Railway, Statement No. 19, p. 188, ref. no. 200954-13 16 September – Cape – Kootjieskolk to Sakrivier, .
Locomotives Three new Cape gauge locomotive types enter service on the South African Railways (SAR): The first batch of twenty 4-8-2 Mountain type locomotives. The first of thirty Class 15B 4-8-2 Mountain type locomotives. Eight Class MJ1 branchline 2-6-6-0 Mallet articulated compound steam locomotives.
References