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1978 In South Africa
The following lists events that happened during 1978 in South Africa. Incumbents * State President: ** Nico Diederichs (until 21 August).Archontology.org: A Guide for Study of Historical Offices: South Africa: Heads of State: 1961-1994
(Accessed on 14 April 2017)
** (acting from 21 August until 9 October). ** (from 10 October). *

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State President Of South Africa
The State President of the Republic of South Africa ( af, Staatspresident) was the head of state of South Africa from 1961 to 1994. The office was established when the country became a republic on 31 May 1961, albeit, outside the Commonwealth of Nations, and Queen Elizabeth II ceased to be Queen of South Africa. The position of Governor-General of South Africa was accordingly abolished. From 1961 to 1984, the post was largely ceremonial. After constitutional reforms enacted in 1983 and taking effect in 1984, the State President became an executive post, and its holder was both head of state and head of government. The State President was appointed by both Houses of the Parliament of South Africa (Senate of South Africa and the House of Assembly of South Africa) in the form of an electoral college. The office was abolished in 1994, with the end of Apartheid and the transition to democratic majority rule. Since then, the head of state and head of government is known simply ...
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Battle Of Cassinga
The Battle of Cassinga also known as the Cassinga Raid or Kassinga Massacre was a controversial South African airborne attack on a South West Africa People's Organization (SWAPO) military camp at the town of Cassinga, Angola on 4 May 1978. Conducted as one of the three major actions of Operation Reindeer during the South African Border War, it was the South African Army's first major air assault operation. Despite investigations with evidence to the contrary such as the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), claims continue that Cassinga was a refugee camp, rather than a military camp, and that consequently the raid was a massacre of civilians rather than a military operation. While there are extensive records covering the SADF's planning and actions around the operation (declassified since the change of government in 1994), no SWAPO records other than photographic evidence of the mass grave exist. Background Starting in 1976, SWAPO PLAN combatants regularly travelled ...
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Siyabonga Shibe
Siyabonga Melongisi Shibe (born February 23, 1978) is a South African actor from Umlazi, KwaZulu-Natal. Early life Shibe was born and raised in Umlazi, Kwazulu-Natal. He attended Ganges Secondary School, where his teachers encouraged him to pursue acting. As a child, Shibe would regularly participate in community plays in Umlazi. After finishing high school, he went to study drama at Technikon Natal. Shibe, along other fellow students at Technikon Natal, formed a theatre group called Amagugu. After completing his studies he went to Johannesburg to further pursue his dream of being an actor. Career Upon his arrival in Johannesburg, he faced various obstacles but his luck changed when he bagged an advert for HIV/AIDS awareness. He went on to land a role in a feature film called ''The Stripes of a Hero''. In 2002 to 2005, he bagged a leading role as Sifiso in the SABC1 drama series ''Gaz'lam''. The series went on to receive multiple nominations from the South African Film and ...
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George Bizos
George Bizos ( el, Γιώργος Μπίζος; 14 November 19279 September 2020) was a Greek-South African human rights lawyer who campaigned against apartheid in South Africa. He was noted for representing Nelson Mandela during the Rivonia Trial. He instructed Mandela to add the qualification "if needs be" to his trial address, which is credited with sparing him from a sentence of death. Bizos also represented the families of anti-apartheid activists killed by the government, throughout the hearings of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Early life Bizos was the son of Antonios "Antoni" Bizos, the mayor of the small village of Vasilitsi, south of Koroni and Kalamata on the Messenia peninsula of the Peloponnese, Greece. He was born on 14 November 1927, although this was erroneously recorded on his South African identity documents as 1928, owing to his father's declaration to the authorities upon arrival in Egypt. In May 1941 at the age of thirteen, Bizos and his f ...
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Operation Seiljag
Operation Seiljag was a South African 32 Battalion search and destroy campaign conducted against the People's Liberation Army of Namibia (PLAN) from November 1976 to March 1977, during the South African Border War. It was carried out from November 1976 to March 1977 largely on the Yati Strip, a region patrolled by South African security forces parallel to the Angolan border. By February, the fighting had intensified and shifted to about fourteen kilometres into Angola. In the course of a four-month period 32 Battalion had eliminated two PLAN sections, repelled a third incursion across the border, and destroyed three militant bases. The bodies of nineteen guerrillas were recovered, in addition to a cache of mortar bombs and RPG-7 projectiles intended for use on PLAN raids. Operation Seiljag was one of the largest actions involving 32 Battalion at that point, involving firefights with up to three hundred insurgents. Casualties were relatively light on both sides. Background M ...
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32 Battalion (South Africa)
32 Battalion (sometimes nicknamed '' Buffalo Battalion'', ''Three-two battalion'' or pt, Os Terríveis for ''The Terrible Ones'') was a light infantry battalion of the South African Army founded in 1975, composed of black and white commissioned and enlisted personnel. It was disbanded on 26 March 1993. History Military refugees After the victory of the ''Movimento Popular de Libertação de Angola'' (MPLA) in the Angolan War of Independence in 1975, many troops of its main rival, the ''Frente Nacional de Libertação de Angola'' (National Liberation Front of Angola, FNLA), found refuge in the then South African-controlled South West Africa. Formation of Bravo Group From these troops, Colonel Jan Breytenbach together with Commandant Sybie van der Spuy formed a unit that was initially known as Bravo Group but later renamed 32 Battalion. Initially, Bravo Group consisted of two infantry companies, a mortar platoon, an anti-tank section and a machine gun platoon, but ...
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Operation Bruilof
Operation Bruilof ( en, Operation Wedding) was a planned military operation in 1978 by the South African Defence Force during the South African Border War and Angolan Civil War. Background The operation was planned for May 1978, to be conducted by 61 Mechanised Infantry Battalion Group and paratroops. This was to be the first mechanised force to be deployed by the South African forces during the war and consisted of the then new Ratel Infantry Fighting Vehicles as well as Eland Armoured Cars. The plan called for the SADF to cross the South-West Africa–Angola border, with the battle group attacking and destroying six South-West Africa People's Organisation bases around Chetequera before withdrawing. The plan was eventually abandoned and merged into what became Operation Reindeer Operation Reindeer, which began on 4 May 1978, was Apartheid South Africa, South Africa's second major military operation in Angola, carried out under the Apartheid regime, the first being Ope ...
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Angola
, national_anthem = " Angola Avante"() , image_map = , map_caption = , capital = Luanda , religion = , religion_year = 2020 , religion_ref = , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , official_languages = Portuguese , languages2_type = National languages , languages2 = , ethnic_groups = , ethnic_groups_ref = , ethnic_groups_year = 2000 , demonym = , government_type = Unitary dominant-party presidential republic , leader_title1 = President , leader_name1 = João Lourenço , leader_title2 = Vice President , leader_name2 = Esperança da CostaInvestidura do Pr ...
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SWAPO
The South West Africa People's Organisation (, SWAPO; af, Suidwes-Afrikaanse Volks Organisasie, SWAVO; german: Südwestafrikanische Volksorganisation, SWAVO), officially known as the SWAPO Party of Namibia, is a political party and former independence movement in Namibia. Founded in 1960, it has been the governing party in Namibia since the country achieved independence in 1990. The party continues to be dominated in number and influence by the Ovambo ethnic group. SWAPO held a two-thirds majority in parliament from 1994 to 2019. In the general election held in November 2019, the party won 65.5% of the popular vote and 63 out of the 104 seats in the National Assembly. It also holds 28 out of the 42 seats in the National Council. As of November 2017, Namibian President Hage Geingob has been the president of SWAPO after being elected to the position at the party's electoral congress. History Background and foundation German South West Africa was established in 1884. Aft ...
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Land Speed Record For Rail Vehicles
The world record for a conventional wheeled passenger train is held by France's TGV (''Train à Grande Vitesse''), set in 2007 when it reached on a section of track. Japan's experimental maglev train L0 Series achieved on a 42.8 km magnetic levitation track in 2015. World speed records Legend: ; Arr (Arrangement) : Disposition and number of elements forming the train. :; Loc:One locomotive pulling one or more cars) :; Multi :Multi Motorized Elements :; Single :Single rail vehicle ; Power: DC, DC 3rd rail, AC, Single phase, Triphase, Diesel-elec., Gas, Steam, Diesel-hydraulic, Propeller, Rocket, Jet. ; State: "Proto." (Prototype), "Unmod." (Unmodified from vehicles in service), "unknown" (Unknown), "Tuned" All passenger trains The following is a partial list of absolute world speed records for all trains designed to carry passengers, regardless of gauge, propulsion or type of rail, , - , , , , 1938-20-07 , , Bologna-Milano line between Pontenure and Piacenza ...
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South African Railways
Transnet Freight Rail is a South African rail transport company, formerly known as Spoornet. It was part of the South African Railways and Harbours Administration, a state-controlled organisation that employed hundreds of thousands of people for decades from the first half of the 20th century and was widely referred to by the initials SAR&H (SAS&H in Afrikaans). Customer complaints about serious problems with Transnet Freight Rail's service were reported in 2010. Its head office is in Inyanda House in Parktown, Johannesburg. History Railways were first developed in the area surrounding Cape Town and later in Durban around the 1840s. The first line opened in Durban on 27 June 1850. The initial network was created to serve the agricultural production area between Cape Town and Wellington. The news that there were gold deposits in the Transvaal Republic moved the Cape Colony Government (supported by British Government) to link Kimberley as soon as possible by rail to Cape Town ...
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Operation Saffraan
Operation Saffraan ( en, Operation Safron) was a series of South African Defence Force raids from the Caprivi Strip area during the South African Border War. On August 23, 1978, PLAN and the Zambian army shelled the small South African garrison town Katimo Mulilo in eastern Caprivi (Namibia). In March 1979, South African forces entered south-western Zambia attacking PLAN bases in retaliation for the shelling of Katimo Mulilo. These bases were around Sinjembele and the Njinje forest, were found to have been vacated but the facilities were destroyed disrupting future border infiltrations. The raid into Zambia resulted in SWAPO being asked to leave the country. Conducted on 7 March 1979 concurrently with Operation Rekstok; it followed Operation Reindeer and preceded Operation Sceptic. See also *Angolan Civil War The Angolan Civil War ( pt, Guerra Civil Angolana) was a civil war in Angola, beginning in 1975 and continuing, with interludes, until 2002. The war immediately be ...
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