2006 in South Africa

[edit] Events

10 January - 3 miners are killed and 4 others are injured when a magnitude 2.4 earthquake traps 12 miners underground at the TauTona gold mine near Carletonville
26–28 January - A large fire breaks out on the slopes of Table Mountain, spreading to lower-lying suburbs and Lion's Head, taking one life, causing property damage and destroying significant portions of the indigenous fynbos population. (Full article: 2006 Table Mountain fire)

18–23 February - The Koeberg nuclear power station automatically disconnects from the national power grid after an undisclosed incident, leaving large parts of the Western Cape without electricity supply. Load shedding in the form of erratic rolling blackouts persist during the week, causing around R500 billion in losses to industry according to some estimates.

1 March - Local government elections held
5 March - Tsotsi wins the 2005 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film at the 78th Academy Awards
8 March - David Goldblatt is awarded the Hasselblad Foundation International Award in Photography
13 March - The South African Transport and Allied Workers Union (Satawu) starts a week-long national strike over the restructuring of Transnet
14 March - Kofi Annan, United Nations secretary-general, addresses parliament in Cape Town urging African leaders to improve conditions in Africa
14-15 March - Members of the South African Students' Congress (Sasco) and African National Congress Youth League stage a violent protests at the North-West University's Mafikeng campus, over the exclusion of some students because of unpaid fees
23 March - 8 miners are trapped underground when a fire breaks out at the Buffelsfontein mine in Stilfontein
23-24 March - About 150 000 security guards go on a two-day nationwide strike but continues into April and May
25 March - R 69,000,000 (USD11.39m) is stolen in a cash heist from an South African Airways plane at Johannesburg International Airport
30 March - Six South Africans die when the al-Dana, a motorised dhow, sinks off Manama, Bahrain
27 March - 5 000 Telkom workers stage a protest march against Telkoms's profit-sharing scheme in Pretoria

3 April - Herman van Rooyen and Rudi Gouws, two Boeremag treason trial accused, escape from the Pretoria High Court
- The Alexandros T, a Greek bulk carrier, sinks about 300 nautical miles (560 km) east of Port Elizabeth. The ship (299 m long and 91,164 gross tonnage) was en-route from Brazil to China with a cargo of steel
6 April - A giant rotor to replace the damaged rotor at Koeberg nuclear power station arrives in Cape Town onboard the South African Navy's fleet replenishment ship SAS Drakensberg (A301)
24 April - The first of four South African Air Force Super Lynx 300 helicopters flys at AgustaWestland’s Yeovil factory in England

7 October - The Marriage Alliance protests in Pretoria against same-sex marriage
12 October - Herschelle Gibbs, cricketer, is questioned by the New Delhi police in Mumbai, India in connection with his alleged role in a 2000 cricket match-fixing scandal.
16 October - South Africa is selected for the first time as a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council for the 2007-2008 period

February 12 – George Mofokeng wins his first national title in the men's marathon, clocking 2:15:06 in Port Elizabeth.