1974 in South Africa

← 1973 1972 1971 1974 in South Africa → 1975 1976 1977
Decades:	1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s
See also:	List of years in South Africa

Incumbents

• State President: Jacobus Johannes Fouché

Events

January

• 4 – Harry Schwarz and Mangosuthu Buthelezi sign the Mahlabatini Declaration of Faith, a five-point plan for racial peace in South Africa.

March

• 18 – Members of the World Council of Churches's Executive or Central Committee are banned from South Africa.
• 19 – The Narcotics Bureau of the South African Police is established.
• 19 – Chief Minister Cedric Phatudi of Lebowa signs the ‘Seshego Declaration’ with United Party Transvaal leader Harry Schwarz.

April

• 24 – A whites only general election takes place and is won by the National Party.
• 25 – A coup in Portugal leads to that country's withdrawal from its colonies in Angola and Mozambique.

May

• 6 – The British and Irish Lions begin a controversial twenty-two match rugby union tour of South Africa and Rhodesia.
• 29 – B.J. Vorster, Prime Minister of South Africa and Ian Smith, Prime Minister of Rhodesia, meet for talks and agree to co-operative co-existence with and non-interference in the internal affairs of a black-ruled Mozambique.

June

• 5 – The Japanese government announces that South Africans will no longer be granted visas to enter Japan.

July

• 7 – New Zealand imposes a blanket ban on sports teams from South Africa

September

• 22–23 – John Vorster, Prime Minister of South Africa, holds talks with Félix Houphouët-Boigny, President of Côte d'Ivoire.

October

• 25 – Pik Botha declares at the United Nations that South Africa is beginning to make far-reaching reforms.

November

• 26 – Anneline Kriel is crowned as Miss World 1974, the second South African to hold the title after Penny Coelen in 1958, when Helen Morgan resigns four days after winning the 24th Miss World pageant.

Unknown date

• The Sishen-Saldanha iron ore line is opened.

Births

• 11 January – David, Elizabeth, Emma, Grant, Jason and Nicolette Rosenkowitz are born in Cape Town, the first sextuplets in the world where all six babies survive.
• 7 February – Steve Nash, 2005 and 2006 NBA MVP, is born in Johannesburg. He emigrated with his family to Canada in early childhood and was raised there.
• 5 March – Megan Hall, triathlete.
• 15 March – Percy Montgomery, Springbok rugby player.
• 13 April – K. Sello Duiker, novelist. (d. 2005)
• 12 June – Sivan Pillay, entertainment executive (music and television) and lead singer of rock band Hunting Season, is born in Durban.
• 30 June – Hezekiél Sepeng, athlete, is born in Potchefstroom.
• 8 November – Penny Heyns, breast-stroke swimmer.

Deaths

• 1 February – Onkgopotse Abram Tiro, a leader of the South African Students' Organisation, is killed by a letter bomb near Gaborone, Botswana.
• 30 April – Johanna Suzanna Holtzhausen, a coloratura singer and member of the Music Committee of the Federation of Afrikaans Cultural Organisations, dies at the age of 88.

Railways

Locomotives

• Three new Cape gauge locomotive types enter service on the South African Railways (SAR):
  • The first of one hundred Class 6E1, Series 5 electric locomotives.
  • November – The first of 150 Class 35-200 General Motors Electro-Motive Division (GM-EMD) type GT18MC diesel-electric locomotives.
  • December – The first of 100 Class 34-600 GM-EMD type GT26MC diesel-electric locomotives.

• ISCOR places the first of forty-four Class 34-500 General Electric type U26C diesel-electric locomotives in service on the Sishen-Saldanha iron ore line.