1914 in South Africa

	1914 in South Africa
1911 1912 1913 « 1914 » 1915 1916 1917
List of years in South Africa

Events

January

• 8 – A railway strike is declared in the Transvaal and Orange Free State.

April

• 23 – The Afrikaans language receives official recognition when Cornelis Jacobus Langenhoven addresses the English caucus of the Cape Provincial Council.

July

• 1 – The National Party is formed in Bloemfontein.

December

• 19 – Mahatma Gandhi departs from Durban for Bombay.

Unknown date

• South Africa declares war on Germany.
• The steamship Clan Stuart is blown ashore between Glencairn and Simon's Town in the Cape Province.
• Sydney Buxton, 1st Earl Buxton is appointed the 2nd Governor-General of the Union of South Africa.
• The Kimberley mine or "Big Hole" is closed.
• South Africa's government agree to many of the Indians' demands. Discriminatory taxes on Indian traders are abolished, the legality of non-Christian marriages is recognized and the continued immigration of free Indians is permitted.
• A new lighthouse is built at Cape Point.

Births

• 3 July – Marmaduke Thomas St. John Pattle, World War II fighter pilot, is born in Butterworth, Eastern Cape.
• 9 December – Shmuel Katz, Israeli writer, historian and journalist, is born in South Africa. (d. 2008)

Deaths

• 15 September – General Koos de la Rey, a Boer general during the Boer War, is shot dead after his driver fails to stop at a police roadblock.

Railways

Railway lines opened

• 1 January – Cape – Kleipan to Birdfield, 6 miles 59 chains (10.8 kilometres).
• 5 January – Natal – Winterton to Bergville, 18 miles 27 chains (29.5 kilometres).
• 2 February – Natal – Ixopo to Madonela (Narrow gauge), 17 miles 27 chains (27.9 kilometres).
• 23 February – Natal – Ahrens to Kranskop, 12 miles 26 chains (19.8 kilometres).
• 4 March – Free State – Marsala to Frankfort, 17 miles 39 chains (28.1 kilometres).
• 3 April – Cape – Gamtoos to Patensie (Narrow gauge), 18 miles 79 chains (30.6 kilometres).
• 6 April – Cape – Caledon to Klipdale, 43 miles 9 chains (69.4 kilometres).
• 5 May – Transvaal – Lilliput to Messina, 19 miles 7 chains (30.7 kilometres).
• 18 May – Transvaal – Sabie to Graskop, 21 miles 75 chains (35.3 kilometres).
• 25 May – Transvaal – Cranbourne to Modderbee, 6 miles 79 chains (11.2 kilometres).
• September – Natal – Newleigh to Estcourt deviation, 26 miles 4 chains (41.9 kilometres).
• 21 December – Transvaal – Bethal to Morgenzon, 27 miles 10 chains (43.7 kilometres).

Locomotives

Six new Cape gauge locomotive types enter service on the South African Railways (SAR):

• Forty-one Class 14A 4-8-2 Mountain type steam locomotives.
• Ten Class 15 4-8-2 Mountain type locomotives.
• The first of 119 Class 15A 4-8-2 Mountain type locomotives.
• Twelve Class 16 4-6-2 Pacific type passenger steam locomotives.
• Fifteen Class MC1 2-6-6-0 Mallet articulated compound steam locomotives.
• Only two of the ten Class MJ 2-6-6-0 Mallet compound locomotives ordered from German manufacturer Maffei before the outbreak of World War I disrupts further delivery.