1862 in South Africa

Incumbents

• Governor of the Cape of Good Hope and High Commissioner for Southern Africa:
• * Sir Robert Wynyard.
• * Sir Philip Wodehouse.
• Lieutenant-governor of the Colony of Natal: John Scott.
• State President of the Orange Free State: Marthinus Wessel Pretorius.
• President of the Executive Council of the South African Republic:
• * Stephanus Schoeman.
• * Willem Cornelis Janse van Rensburg.

  Events

• 15 - Sir Philip Wodehouse becomes Governor of the Cape of Good Hope and High Commissioner for Southern Africa.

• 18 - W.C. Janse van Rensburg becomes acting President of the Executive Council of the South African Republic.

• 2 - A breakwater construction locomotive for Table Bay Harbour arrives on the ship Navarino.
• 9 - The Transvaal Civil War breaks out following Stephanus Schoeman's unconstitutional ousting of the acting President of the Executive Council of the South African Republic on 6 December 1860.

• Standard Bank of British South Africa Limited is established in London.

  Railways

Railway lines opened

• 1 May - Cape Western - Cape Town to Stellenbosch,.

  Locomotives

• The Table Bay Harbour Board acquires a single broad-gauge locomotive, builder or appearance unknown, for excavation and breakwater construction work.

  Births

• 24 July - Percy FitzPatrick, author, politician, mining financier and fruit industry pioneer.
• 27 September - Louis Botha, Boer general and politician.