The following lists events that happened during 1982 in South Africa.

• State President: Marais Viljoen.^[1]
• Prime Minister: P.W. Botha.
• Chief Justice: Frans Lourens Herman Rumpff then Pieter Jacobus Rabie.

January

• 7 – A bomb damages the office of the West Rand Administration Board in Soweto.
• 8 – Umkhonto we Sizwe guerrillas attack Koeberg nuclear power plant in Cape Town.
• 11 – The United Nations Special Committee against Apartheid launches the International Year of Mobilisation for Sanctions against South Africa.

February

• 15 – Four COSAS-Members are bombed by the Security Branch under orders of Brigadier Schoon at a mine dump outside Kagiso. Three die and one is injured.
• 18 – The South African Navy frigate SAS President Kruger sinks with the loss of 16 lives after colliding with SAS Tafelberg.
• 24 – Andries Treurnicht and another 22 National Party MPs vote for no confidence in Prime Minister P.W. Botha.
• South Africa and Swaziland sign a non-aggression pact.

March

• 6 – F.W. de Klerk replaces Andries Treurnicht as leader of the National Party in the Transvaal.
• 9-14 – The South African Defence Force's Operation Super takes place.
• 14 – A bomb explodes at the African National Congress headquarters in London.
• 20 – A bomb explodes at the Langa Commissioners Court.

April

• 30 – Prime Minister P.W. Botha and President of Zambia Kenneth Kaunda meet on the Botswana border to discuss the political situation in South West Africa and South Africa.

May

• 12 – A bomb damages the office of the West Rand Administration Board in Soweto for the second time.
• 21 – A bomb explodes at the offices of the Department of Coloured Affairs in Pinetown near Durban.
• 28 – A fuel depot and power transformer in Hectorspruit is damaged by a limpet mine.

June

• 3 – A bomb damages the railway near Dube in Soweto.
• 4 – One person is killed when a bomb explodes in a lift at the offices of the Presidents Council in Cape Town.^[2][3]
• 28 – The railway depot at Vryheid is damaged in an explosion.
• 28 – In Scheepersnek, two bombs cause extensive damage to the railway depot, pump station, stores and vehicles.^[4][5]
• 28 – The Durban-Witwatersrand oil pipeline is damaged by a bomb.

July

• In Port Elizabeth the police station commander's office and New Law Courts are damaged in an attack.

August

• 28 – The Umvoti Mounted Rifles base in Red Hill, Durban is attacked.

September

• 24 – Umkhonto we Sizwe places explosives on a railway bridge near Upington that fails to detonate.
• Two insurgents are killed by police in Boksburg.

October

• 26 – Three bombs explode at the Drakensberg Administration offices in Pietermaritzburg.^[6]
• A special branch policeman and an insurgent are killed in a skirmish in KwaZulu-Natal.

November

• 8 – A bomb causes severe damage at the Mobil fuel storage depot in Mkuze.^[7]
• 20-21 – Umkhonto we Sizwe uses RPG-7s to attack a rural police station and temporary South African Army garrison at Tonga.^[8]

December

• 10 – The South African Defence Force stages a pre-dawn raid on houses inhabited by African National Congress in Maseru, Lesotho.^[9]
• 16 – The United Freedom Front bombs offices of South African Airways in Elmont, NY and IBM in Harrison, NY.^[10][11]
• 18-19 – Four explosions cause massive damage at the Koeberg nuclear power station just north of Cape Town.
• 31 – A bomb damages the Johannesburg Magistrates court 200m from John Vorster Square.
• One person is killed and 70 injured in a bomb blast at the Southern Free State Administration Board in Bloemfontein.

Unknown date

• Bulelani Ngcuka is jailed for three years for refusing to give evidence in the political trial of Patrick Maqubele and others.

• South Africa adopts a brighter version of the 1928 flag.

• 2 January – Ricky Januarie, rugby player.
• 8 March – Brett Evans, football player.
• 17 March – Steven Pienaar, football player.
• 18 March – Sisanda Henna, producer, director, and actor.
• 24 March – Fourie du Preez, rugby player.
• 2 May – Johan Botha (cricketer), cricketer.
• 18 May – Katlego Mashego, football player.
• 11 June – Chere Burger, dressage rider.
• 9 June – Reneilwe Letsholonyane, football player.
• 25 July – Monde Zondeki, cricketer
• 27 August – Khuli Chana, Motswako rapper.
• 6 October – Gio Aplon, rugby player.
• 19 October – Louis Oosthuizen, golfer.
• 21 October – Thapelo Mokoena, actor.
• 16 November
  • Anke Pietrangeli, singer.
  • Jannie du Plessis, rugby player.
• 9 December – Lee-Ann Liebenberg, model. She is notable as 2005 FHM-South Africa's Sexiest Woman In the World.
• 22 December – Teko Modise, football player.

• 5 February – Neil Aggett, trade unionist and activist. (b. 1953)^[9]
• 29 March – H. Selby Msimang, journalist and activist. (b. 1886)
• 16 July – Charles Robberts Swart, last Governor-General and first State President. (b. 1894)
• 17 August – Ruth First, anti-apartheid activist and scholar. (b. 1925)
• 20 August – Walter Battiss, artist. (b. 1906)