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Extensive fossil remains are found at the Sterkfontein, Kromdraai and Makapansgat caves .They auggest that various australopithecines existed in South Africa from about three million years ago
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The earliest ironworks in modern-day KwaZulu-Natal Province are believed to date from around 1050. They were the first recorded iron mills in south africa
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In 1487, the Portuguese explorer Bartolomeu Dias became the first European known to have reached southern Africa. On 4 December, he landed at Walfisch Bay (now known as Walvis Bay in present-day Namibia).
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In 1652, a century and a half after the discovery of the Cape Sea Route, Jan van Riebeeck established a refreshment station at the Cape of Good Hope, at what would become Cape Town. The Dutch transported slaves from Indonesia, Madagascar, and India as labour for the colonists in Cape Town.
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The Boer Republics successfully resisted British encroachments during the First Boer War (1880–1881) using guerrilla warfare tactics, which were well suited to local conditions. The British returned with greater numbers, more experience, and new strategy in the Second Boer War (1899–1902), which they won.
