See also: 1975 in South Africa, other events of 1976, 1977 in South Africa and the Timeline of South African history.

Events

January

• 5 January - SABC begins country's first television service

March

• 27 March - The South African Defence Force withdraw from Angola and end Operation Savannah

May

• 29 May - Eskom announces that it will order two nuclear power stations from France

June

• 16 June - Student riots break out in Soweto
• 23 June - B.J. Vorster, the Prime Minister of South Africa, and Henry Kissinger, the United States Secretary of State, hold talks in West Germany over the Rhodesian issue

August

• 25-26 August - The Prime Minister of South Africa, B.J. Vorster and the President of Zambia, Kenneth Kaunda meet at Victoria Falls

September

• 13 September - The Cillié Commission of Inquiry into the riots in Soweto on 16 June start
• 30 September - Michael Lapsley, an Anglican priest and social activist, arrives in Lesotho after his visa was not renewed in South Africa

Unknown date

• Umkhonto we Sizwe's central operations headquarters is set up, and the process of establishing training camps in Angola begin with the Gabela Training Camp becoming the first to be established

Births

• 3 July - Robert Brian Skinstad, South Africa national rugby union team captain, is born in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe

Deaths

• 16 June - Hector Pieterson, a 12 year old boy, killed by police in Soweto
• 9 September - Ivan Mitford-Barberton, art teacher at the Michaelis School of Art in Cape Town and sculptor of several monuments in South Africa, dies in Hout Bay, Cape Town at the age of 80