The following lists events that happened during 1944 in South Africa.

Incumbents

Monarch A monarch is a head of stateWebster's II New College DictionarMonarch Houghton Mifflin. Boston. 2001. p. 707. for life or until abdication, and therefore the head of state of a monarchy. A monarch may exercise the highest authority and power i ...

: King

George VI George VI (Albert Frederick Arthur George; 14 December 1895 – 6 February 1952) was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth from 11 December 1936 until his death in 1952. He was also the last Emperor of I ...

. * Governor-General and

High Commissioner for Southern Africa The British office of high commissioner for Southern Africa was responsible for governing British possessions in Southern Africa, latterly the protectorates of Basutoland (now Lesotho), the Bechuanaland Protectorate (now Botswana) and Swaziland ...

Nicolaas Jacobus de Wet Nicolaas Jacobus de Wet, PC, QC (11 September 1873 – 16 March 1960) was a South African politician, lawyer, and judge who was Chief Justice of South Africa and acting Governor-General from 1943 to 1945. Early life De Wet was born and went t ...

. *

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister i ...

Jan Christiaan Smuts Field Marshal Jan Christian Smuts, (24 May 1870 11 September 1950) was a South African statesman, military leader and philosopher. In addition to holding various military and cabinet posts, he served as Prime Minister of South Africa, prime m ...

. * Chief Justice:

Ernest Frederick Watermeyer Ernest Frederick Watermeyer, PC, QC (12 October 1880 – 18 January 1958), was the Chief Justice of South Africa from 1943 to 1950. Watermeyer was born in Graaff-Reinet in 1880. He was educated at Stellenbosch Gymnasium, Bath College and Gonv ...

Events

* 4 April – An Allied surveillance aircraft of 60 Squadron SAAF photographs part of Auschwitz concentration camp.

Births

* 12 January – Eileen KaNkosi-Shandu, leader of the Inkatha Women Brigade. * 27 February –

Graeme Pollock Robert Graeme Pollock (born 27 February 1944) is a former cricketer for South Africa, Transvaal and Eastern Province. A member of a famous cricketing family, Pollock is widely regarded as one of South Africa's greatest ever cricketers, and as ...

, former cricketer & cricket administrator * 3 March – Jerrold Kessel, South-African-born Israeli journalist and author. (d. 2011) * 9 March – Lee Irvine, cricketer * 23 June –

Clive Barker (soccer) Clive William Barker (born 23 June 1944) is a South African former football coach. He guided the South African national team to their only African Nations Cup title in 1996. He is uncle of Steve Barker. Career Player Barker was born in Dur ...

1996 Africa Cup of Nations The 1996 African Cup of Nations was the 20th edition of the Africa Cup of Nations, the football championship of Africa ( CAF). It was hosted by South Africa, who replaced original hosts Kenya. The field expanded for the first time to 16 teams, s ...

winning coach

Deaths

* 19 September – Johannes Jacobus le Roux,

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

fighter pilot, dies in an aircraft accident in

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

Railways

* The

Namaqualand Railway The Namaqualand Railway was a narrow gauge railway operating between Port Nolloth and O'okiep in the Namaqualand region of the former Cape Colony in South Africa. It was originally a mule-drawn railway built to provide an outlet for the copper ...

line from Port Nolloth to

O'okiep Okiep is a small town in the Northern Cape province of South Africa, and was in the 1870s ranked as having the richest copper mine in the world. The town is on the site of a spring that was known in the Khoekhoe language of the Nama people as ''U ...

is closed.''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

Sports

References

{{Africa topic, 1944 in, state=collapsed History of South Africa