The following lists events that happened during 1951 in South Africa.

• Monarch: King George VI.
• Governor-General: Ernest George Jansen (starting 1 January).
• Prime Minister: Daniel François Malan.
• Chief Justice: Albert van der Sandt Centlivres.

March

• 30 – The Group Areas Act, passed in 1950, becomes law.

May

• 14 – Cabinet votes for the removal of Coloured people from the voters roll.
• 24 – The first part of the Afrikaans Dictionary Woordeboek van die Afrikaanse Taal (WAT) is published, a project which was begun in 1926 by Prof. J.J. Smith of Stellenbosch University.

July

• 29 – Blacks, Coloureds and Indians meet for the first time to discuss a plan of action against race discrimination laws.

August

• 31 – The first Volkswagen Beetle rolls off the plant in Uitenhage.

Unknown date

• Max Theiler, virologist, is awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for developing a vaccine for yellow fever, the first South African to receive a Nobel Prize.

• 3 January – Frank Chikane, civil servant, writer and cleric
• 17 February – Patricia De Lille, current Minister of Public Works and Infrastructure (South Africa) and leader of the political party Good
• 9 March – Helen Zille, federal council chairperson of the Democratic Alliance (South Africa)
• 26 July – Pieter Mulder, politician and the former leader of the Freedom Front Plus
• 1 December – Nozipho Schroeder, lawn bowler^[1]

• 6 April – Robert Broom, the Scottish paleontologist who discovered Mrs Ples. (b. 1866)
• 23 May – Sefako Makgatho, the 2nd African National Congress president. (b. 1861)
• 14 October – Herman Charles Bosman, writer and journalist. (b. 1905)
• 5 November – Reggie Walker, athlete (b. 1889)
• 28 November – Clements Kadalie, trade unionist. (b. 1896)