1908 in South Africa

The following lists events that happened during 1908 in South Africa.

← 1907 1906 1905 1908 in South Africa → 1909 1910 1911
Decades:	1880s 1890s 1900s 1910s 1920s
See also:	List of years in South Africa

Incumbents

• Governor of the Cape of Good Hope and High Commissioner for Southern Africa:Walter Hely-Hutchinson.
• Governor of the Colony of Natal: Matthew Nathan.
• Prime Minister of the Cape of Good Hope: Leander Starr Jameson.
• Prime Minister of the Colony of Natal: Frederick Robert Moor.
• Prime Minister of the Orange River Colony: Hamilton John Goold-Adams.
• Prime Minister of the Transvaal Colony: Louis Botha.

Events

January

• 30 – Mahatma Gandhi is released from prison by Jan Smuts after having been tried and sentenced to 2 months in prison earlier in the month.

March

• 4 – The Pretoria branch of the Transvaal University College, precursor to the University of Pretoria, is established.

October

• 7 – Mahatma Gandhi is arrested in Volksrust, along with fifteen other Indians, for entering Transvaal without registration certificates and is sentenced to two months imprisonment with hard labor.

Unknown date

• Bosman de Ravelli composes the first Afrikaans art song

Births

• 5 March – Arthur Wegelin, composer.
• 23 April – Bram Fischer, lawyer and champion against apartheid, is born in the Orange Free State. (d. 1975)
• 2 July – Andries Johannes Bester de Klerk, writer and secretary of the Cape Province, is born in Williston, Cape Colony

Railways

Railway lines opened

CGR NG 4-6-2T Pacific

• 4 January – Cape Eastern – West Bank, Buffalo Harbour to Chiselhurst, 4 miles 35 chains (7.1 kilometres).[1]
• 6 February – Transvaal – Machadodorp to Breyten, 55 miles 3 chains (88.6 kilometres).[2]
• 8 April – Free State – Hamilton to Beaconsfield (Cape), 99 miles 52 chains (160.4 kilometres).[2]
• 28 May – Cape Western – Milnerton to Ascot, 2 miles (3.2 kilometres).[2]
• 3 June – Natal – Esperanza to Donnybrook (Narrow gauge), 94 miles (151.3 kilometres).[2]

Locomotives

• The Cape Government Railways places two 4-6-2 Pacific type narrow gauge tank steam locomotives in passenger service on the Walmer branch in Port Elizabeth.[3][4]

References

1. 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.
2. Statement Showing, in Chronological Order, the Date of Opening and the Mileage of Each Section of Railway, Statement No. 19, p. 186, ref. no. 200954-13
3. Paxton, Leith; Bourne, David (1985). Locomotives of the South African Railways (1st ed.). Cape Town: Struik. pp. 113, 156. ISBN 0869772112.
4. 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. 232. ISBN 9 780620 512282.