1959 in South Africa

List of events

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1959
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South Africa

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Decades:

Incumbents

Monarch: Queen Elizabeth II.
Governor-General:
- until 25 November: Ernest George Jansen.
- 25 November – 11 December: Lucas Cornelius Steyn.
- starting 11 December: Charles Robberts Swart.
Prime Minister: Hendrik Frensch Verwoerd.
Chief Justice: Henry Allan Fagan then Lucas Cornelius Steyn.

9 – Wing Commander Michael Beetham flying a Royal Air Force Vickers Valiant sets a record of 11 hours 27 minutes for a non-stop London-Cape Town flight.^[1]

11 – Members of the United Party led by Helen Suzman secede and form the Progressive Party.

1 – Twelve countries, including South Africa, the United States and the Soviet Union, sign the Antarctic Treaty.
11 – Charles Robberts Swart is appointed the 11th Governor-General of the Union of South Africa.
12 – The 47th Annual Conference of the African National Congress takes place in Durban.

1 January – Thulas Nxesi, national minister
7 January – Peter Mokaba, member of the South African parliament, deputy minister in the government of Nelson Mandela (d. 2002)
14 March – Tertius Bosch, cricketer.
16 March – Tito Mboweni, politician.
16 September – Dave Richardson (cricketer), cricketer.
18 November – Christine Barkhuizen le Roux, writer (d. 2020)^[2]

April 15 – Leonard Beyers, South African army general (b. 1894)
February 7 – D. F. Malan, South African politician, 4th Prime Minister of South Africa (b. 1874)
April 15 – Leonard Beyers, South African army general (b. 1894)

Three new Cape gauge locomotive types enter service on the South African Railways.

May–July – Seven Class 1-DH Henschel type DH 1420 diesel-hydraulic locomotives.^[3]
November – The first of 115 Class 32-000 General Electric type U18C1 diesel-electric locomotives in South West Africa.^[4]
The first of 135 Class 5E1, Series 1 electric locomotives, an upgraded and more powerful version of the Class 5E.^[4]^[5]

^ "Records set by the RAF". Air of Authority – A History of RAF Organisation. Archived from the original on 12 August 2011. Retrieved 10 June 2012.
^ "Christine Barkhuizen-Le Roux (1959–2020)". Flanders Literature. 30 November 2020. Retrieved 13 April 2022.
^ Paxton, Leith; Bourne, David (1985). Locomotives of the South African Railways (1st ed.). Cape Town: Struik. pp. 143–144. ISBN 0869772112.
^ ^a ^b South African Railways Index and Diagrams Electric and Diesel Locomotives, 610mm and 1065mm Gauges, Ref LXD 14/1/100/20, 28 January 1975, as amended
^ Dulez, Jean A. (2012). Railways of Southern Africa 150 Years (Commemorating One Hundred and Fifty Years of Railways on the Sub-Continent – Complete Motive Power Classifications and Famous Trains – 1860–2011) (1st ed.). Garden View, Johannesburg, South Africa: Vidrail Productions. p. 293. ISBN 9 780620 512282.

v t e 1959 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)