1965 in South Africa

• State President: Charles Robberts Swart.^[1]
• Prime Minister: Hendrik Verwoerd.
• Chief Justice: Lucas Cornelius Steyn.

January

• 8 – Adam Faith, a British pop singer, cancels his tour of South Africa because the South African government prohibited mixed audiences at concerts.

April

• 1 – Frederick John Harris is hanged for exploding the bomb at Johannesburg Park Station that killed 77-year-old Ethel Rhys and injured 23 others on 24 July 1964.

May

• 4 – Units of the South African Defence Force begin to be issued with the R1 7.62 mm rifle, made in South Africa under license.

October

• 4 – At least 150 are killed when a commuter train derails at the outskirts of Durban.

November

• Rhodes University in Grahamstown installs a computer, the first university in South Africa to do so.

Unknown date

• The African National Congress establishes its headquarters in Morogoro, Tanzania.

• 1 February – Dave Callaghan, cricketer.
• 14 February – Themba Ndaba, actor.
• 17 March – Andrew Hudson, cricketer.
• 18 March – Yvonne Chaka Chaka, singer.
• 2 June – Thoko Didiza, politician.
• 10 June – Tiaan Strauss, rugby player.
• 13 July – Hannes Strydom, rugby player.
• 25 September – Augustine Makalakalane, football player.
• 1 December – Henry Honiball, rugby player.
• 18 December – John Moshoeu, footballer. (d. 2015).

• 1 April – Frederick John Harris, school teacher and bomb planter. (b. 1937)
• 1 July – Wally Hammond, English first-class cricketer and South African sports administrator. (b. 1903)
• 19 July – Ingrid Jonker, Afrikaans poet. (b. 1933)

Locomotives

Two new Cape gauge locomotive types enter service on the South African Railways:

• The first of sixty-five Class 33-000 General Electric type U20C diesel-electric locomotives.^[2][3]
• The first of one hundred Class 5E1, Series 4 electric locomotives.^[2][3]