1906 in South Africa

Decades:	1880s; 1890s; 1900s; 1910s; 1920s;
See also:	1906 in South African sport; List of years in South Africa;

The following lists events that happened during 1906 in South Africa.

Incumbents

11 – Two British £1-per-head tax collectors are killed near Richmond, sparking the Bambatha Rebellion led by Chief Bambatha kaMancinza, leader of the amaZondi clan of the Zulu people.^[1]

2 – Lord Alfred Milner, British colonial secretary and the High Commissioner for Southern Africa, returns to Britain.
6 – British troops kill over 60 Zulu warriors during a punitive expedition near Durban.

The first issue of the Annals of the Natal Government Museum (currently African Invertebrates) is published by Natal Museum in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa.

6 January – Walter Battiss, artist, is born in Somerset East (d. 1982)
5 March – Siegfried Mynhardt, actor, is born in Johannesburg. (d. 1996)
11 June – N.P. van Wyk Louw, poet, dramatist and essayist, is born in Sutherland, Cape Colony. (d. 1970)
30 October – Archibald Campbell Mzoliza Jordan, Xhosa writer and linguist, is born near Tsolo in the Cape Colony.
13 December – Laurens van der Post, author, farmer, war hero, political adviser, educator, journalist, humanitarian, philosopher, explorer and conservationist, is born in Philippolis. (d. 1996)

Transvaal – Nancefield to Pimville, 2 miles (3.2 kilometres).^[2]
22 January – Cape Central – Riversdale to Voorbaai, 58 miles (93.3 kilometres).^[2]
6 February – Free State – Jagersfontein to Fauresmith, 8 miles 23 chains (13.3 kilometres).^[2]
1 April – Cape Midland – Port Elizabeth to Humewood Road (Narrow gauge), 75 chains (1.5 kilometres).^[3]
6 April – Transvaal – Orkney to Fourteen Streams, 135 miles (217.3 kilometres).^[2]
16 May – Natal – Donnybrook to Creighton, 15 miles 3 chains (24.2 kilometres).^[2]
1 June – Natal – Ennersdale to Loskop, 12 miles 75 chains (20.8 kilometres).^[2]
21 June – Free State – Bethlehem to Kroonstad, 90 miles 15 chains (145.1 kilometres).^[2]
21 June – Transvaal – Pienaarsrivier to Settlers (Regauged), 26 miles 62 chains (43.1 kilometres).^[2]

1 August – Cape Western – Pampoenpoort to Carnarvon, 37 miles 27 chains (60.1 kilometres).^[3]
29 August – Cape Eastern – Elliot to Maclear, 54 miles 51 chains (87.9 kilometres).^[3]
1 December – Cape Midland – Humansdorp to Misgund (Narrow gauge), 86 miles 20 chains (138.8 kilometres).^[3]
15 December – Cape Midland – Valley Junction to Walmer (Narrow gauge), 3 miles 40 chains (5.6 kilometres).^[2]^[3]
17 December – Cape Eastern – Eagle to Butterworth, 22 miles 79 chains (37.0 kilometres).^[3]
26 December – Transvaal – Apex to Witbank, 69 miles 49 chains (112.0 kilometres).^[2]
27 December – Transvaal – Pretoria North to Rustenburg, 60 miles 34 chains (97.2 kilometres).^[2]

The Cape Government Railways places three locomotives in service, two of them experimental.
- An experimental 9th Class 2-8-2 Mikado steam locomotive. In 1912 it will be designated Class Experimental 5 on the South African Railways (SAR).^[4]^[5]
- An experimental 10th Class 4-8-0 Mastodon locomotive for the Cape Eastern System. In 1912 it will be designated Class Experimental 6 on the SAR.^[4]^[5]
- A single self-contained Railmotor for low-volume passenger service on the Franschhoek branchline.^[6]

The Natal Government Railways (NGR) modifies six of its 4-8-0 Class B locomotives to a 4-8-2 wheel arrangement, the first 4-8-2 Mountain type tender locomotive in the world. In 1912 it will be designated Class 1B on the South African Railways (SAR).^[5]
In April the NGR places two Class N 4-6-2 narrow gauge tank locomotives in service on the new narrow gauge line that is being built between Estcourt and Weenen.^[5]

^ Stuart, J. (1913). History of the Zulu Rebellion 1906. London: Macmillan and Co. pp. 548–581.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k Statement Showing, in Chronological Order, the Date of Opening and the Mileage of Each Section of Railway, Statement No. 19, p. 185, ref. no. 200954-13
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f 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.
^ ^a ^b Holland, D.F. (1971). Steam Locomotives of the South African Railways. Vol. 1: 1859–1910 (1st ed.). Newton Abbott, England: David & Charles. p. 72. ISBN 978-0-7153-5382-0.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Paxton, Leith; Bourne, David (1985). Locomotives of the South African Railways (1st ed.). Cape Town: Struik. pp. 34–35, 83, 110–111, 157. ISBN 0869772112.
^ Metropolitan Amalgamated Railway Carriage and Wagon Company Ltd drawing no. 12640

v t e 1906 in Africa
Sovereign states	Algeria Angola Benin Botswana Burkina Faso Burundi Cameroon Cape Verde Central African Republic Chad Comoros Democratic Republic of the Congo Republic of the Congo Djibouti Egypt Equatorial Guinea Eritrea Eswatini Ethiopia Gabon The Gambia Ghana Guinea Guinea-Bissau Ivory Coast Kenya Lesotho Liberia Libya Madagascar Malawi Mali Mauritania Mauritius Morocco Mozambique Namibia Niger Nigeria Rwanda São Tomé and Príncipe Senegal Seychelles Sierra Leone Somalia South Africa South Sudan Sudan Tanzania Togo Tunisia Uganda Zambia Zimbabwe
States with limited recognition	Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic Somaliland
Dependencies and other territories	Canary Islands / Ceuta / Melilla (Spain) Madeira (Portugal) Mayotte / Réunion (France) Saint Helena / Ascension Island / Tristan da Cunha (United Kingdom)