The following lists events that happened during 1897 in South Africa. Incumbents Governor of the Cape of Good Hope and High Commissioner for Southern Africa:Hercules Robinson then Alfred Milner. Governor of the Colony of Natal: Charles Bullen Hugh Mitchell. State President of the Orange Free State: Martinus Theunis Steyn. State President of the South African Republic: Paul Kruger. Prime Minister of the Cape of Good Hope: John Gordon Sprigg. Prime Minister of the Colony of Natal: until 14 February: John Robinson. 15 February – 4 October: Harry Escombe. starting 4 October: Henry Binns. Events April 21 – Sir Alfred Milner becomes High Commissioner of South Africa and Governor of the Cape Colony. May 5 – Port Elizabeth is flooded. December 30 – The Colony of Natal annexes Zululand. Unknown date Bergville is established in the foothills of the Drakensberg mountains in Natal. "Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika" ("God Bless Africa") is composed as a Xhosa hymn by South African teacher Enoch Sontonga. Births 3 July – Ludwig Wybren Hiemstra, Afrikaans linguist and editor of the Bilingual Dictionary, is born in Lydenburg. 26 October – James Leonard Brierley Smith, ichthyologist, is born in Graaff Reinet. Deaths Railways Railway lines opened 13 March – Cape Western – Mafeking to Ramatlabama at the Bechuanaland border, . 3 August – Transvaal – Frederikstad to Klerksdorp, . 1 October – Cape Midland – Rosmead Junction to Middelburg, . 1 December – Natal – Isipingo to Park Rynie, . 3 December – Natal – Verulam to Tongaat, . 15 December – Natal – Thornville Junction to Richmond, . Locomotives Cape Two new Cape gauge locomotive types enter service on the Cape Government Railways (CGR): Six 4th Class 4-4-2 Atlantic type tender locomotives on the section from Kimberley southwards. A third batch of fifty-five 6th Class 4-6-0 steam locomotives. In 1912 they would become Class 6B on the South African Railways. Transvaal The independent Pretoria-Pietersburg Railway in the Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek (Transvaal Republic) purchases a tank locomotive named Portuguese from the Lourenco Marques, Delagoa Bay and East Africa Railway in Mozambique. Arthur Koppel, acting as agent, imports a number of Dickson-built 0-4-2ST narrow gauge saddle tank steam locomotives to mines on the Witwatersrand. References South Africa Years in South Africa