1897 in South Africa

The following lists events that happened during 1897 in South Africa.

← 1896 1895 1894 1897 in South Africa → 1898 1899 1900
Decades:	1870s 1880s 1890s 1900s 1910s
See also:	List of years in South Africa

Incumbents

• Governor of the Cape of Good Hope and High Commissioner for Southern Africa:Hercules Robinson then Alfred Milner.
• Governor of the Colony of Natal: Charles Bullen Hugh Mitchell.
• State President of the Orange Free State: Martinus Theunis Steyn.
• State President of the South African Republic: Paul Kruger.
• Prime Minister of the Cape of Good Hope: John Gordon Sprigg.
• Prime Minister of the Colony of Natal:
  • until 14 February: John Robinson.
  • 15 February – 4 October: Harry Escombe.
  • starting 4 October: Henry Binns.

Events

April

• 21 – Sir Alfred Milner becomes High Commissioner of South Africa and Governor of the Cape Colony.

May

• 5 – Port Elizabeth is flooded.

December

• 30 – The Colony of Natal annexes Zululand.

Unknown date

• Bergville is established in the foothills of the Drakensberg mountains in Natal.
• "Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika" ("God Bless Africa") is composed as a Xhosa hymn by South African teacher Enoch Sontonga.

Births

• 3 July – Ludwig Wybren Hiemstra, Afrikaans linguist and editor of the Bilingual Dictionary, is born in Lydenburg.
• 26 October – James Leonard Brierley Smith, ichthyologist, is born in Graaff Reinet.

Railways

Railway lines opened

CGR 4th Class

SAR Class 6B

PPR 35 Tonner Portuguese

• 13 March – Cape Western – Mafeking to Ramatlabama at the Bechuanaland border, 16 miles (25.7 kilometres).[1]
• 3 August – Transvaal – Frederikstad to Klerksdorp, 43 miles (69.2 kilometres).[1]
• 1 October – Cape Midland – Rosmead Junction to Middelburg, 7 miles 3 chains (11.3 kilometres).[2]
• 1 December – Natal – Isipingo to Park Rynie, 27 miles 48 chains (44.4 kilometres).[1]
• 3 December – Natal – Verulam to Tongaat, 12 miles (19.3 kilometres).[1]
• 15 December – Natal – Thornville Junction to Richmond, 17 miles 17 chains (27.7 kilometres).[1]

Locomotives

Cape

Two new Cape gauge locomotive types enter service on the Cape Government Railways (CGR):

• Six 4th Class 4-4-2 Atlantic type tender locomotives on the section from Kimberley southwards.[3]
• A third batch of fifty-five 6th Class 4-6-0 steam locomotives. In 1912 they would become Class 6B on the South African Railways.[3][4][5][6]

Transvaal

• The independent Pretoria-Pietersburg Railway in the Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek (Transvaal Republic) purchases a 4-6-0 35 Tonner tank locomotive named Portuguese from the Lourenco Marques, Delagoa Bay and East Africa Railway in Mozambique.[3]
• Arthur Koppel, acting as agent, imports a number of Dickson-built 0-4-2ST narrow gauge saddle tank steam locomotives to mines on the Witwatersrand.[6]

References

1. Statement Showing, in Chronological Order, the Date of Opening and the Mileage of Each Section of Railway, Statement No. 19, p. 183, ref. no. 200954-13
2. Report for year ending 31 December 1909, Cape Government Railways, Section VIII - Dates of Opening and the Length of the different Sections in the Cape Colony, from the Year 1873 to 31st December, 1909.
3. Holland, D.F. (1971). Steam Locomotives of the South African Railways. 1: 1859–1910 (1st ed.). Newton Abbott, Devon: David & Charles. pp. 46–47, 57–59, 118–119. ISBN 978-0-7153-5382-0.
4. Holland, D. F. (1972). Steam Locomotives of the South African Railways. 2: 1910-1955 (1st ed.). Newton Abbott, Devon: David & Charles. pp. 137–138. ISBN 978-0-7153-5427-8.
5. Classification of S.A.R. Engines with Renumbering Lists, issued by the Chief Mechanical Engineer’s Office, Pretoria, January 1912, pp. 8, 12, 14, 30-31 (Reprinted in April 1987 by SATS Museum, R.3125-6/9/11-1000)
6. Paxton, Leith; Bourne, David (1985). Locomotives of the South African Railways (1st ed.). Cape Town: Struik. pp. 41–44, 100–101. ISBN 0869772112.