1951 in South Africa

List of events

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1951
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List of years in South Africa

The following lists events that happened during 1951 in South Africa.

Incumbents

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

Events

March

30 – The Group 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 Dictionary Woordeboek 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 and Indians meet for the first time to discuss a plan of action against race discrimination laws.

August

31 – The first Volkswagen Beetle rolls off the plant in Uitenhage.

Unknown date

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

Births

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

Deaths

6 April – Robert Broom, the Scottish paleontologist who discovered Mrs Ples. (b. 1866)
23 May – Sefako Makgatho, the 2nd African 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)

Railways

Railway lines opened

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]

Sports

Canoeing

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

Rugby

8 December – The Springboks beat Ireland 17–5 in Ireland.

References

^ "Lawn Bowls | Athlete Profile: Nozipho SCHROEDER - Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games". results.gc2018.com. Retrieved 13 December 2020.
^ ^a ^b Statement Showing, in Chronological Order, the Date of Opening and the Mileage of Each Section of Railway, Statement No. 19, p. 191, ref. no. 200954-13

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Years in South Africa (1901–present)

v t e 1951 in Africa
Sovereign states	Algeria Angola Benin Botswana Burkina Faso Burundi Cameroon Cape Verde Central African Republic Chad Comoros Democratic Republic of the Congo Republic of the Congo Djibouti Egypt Equatorial Guinea Eritrea Eswatini Ethiopia Gabon The Gambia Ghana Guinea Guinea-Bissau Ivory Coast Kenya Lesotho Liberia Libya Madagascar Malawi Mali Mauritania Mauritius Morocco Mozambique Namibia Niger Nigeria Rwanda São Tomé and Príncipe Senegal Seychelles Sierra Leone Somalia South Africa South Sudan Sudan Tanzania Togo Tunisia Uganda Zambia Zimbabwe
States with limited recognition	Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic Somaliland
Dependencies and other territories	Canary Islands / Ceuta / Melilla (Spain) Madeira (Portugal) Mayotte / Réunion (France) Saint Helena / Ascension Island / Tristan da Cunha (United Kingdom)

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