2002 in South Africa

• President: Thabo Mbeki.[1]
• Deputy President: Jacob Zuma.
• Chief Justice: Arthur Chaskalson.

January

• 29 – Doctors Without Borders, an international humanitarian organisation, begins importing a cheap generic version of patented AIDS drugs into South Africa in defiance of South Africa's patent laws.

March

• 27 – Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang approaches the Constitutional Court to stop the issuing of Nevirapine.
• Sivan Pillay, Ed Jordan, Nkhensani Mangani and Karl Anderson are appointed as the first judges of reality show Coca-Cola Popstars, which yields two new pop groups, winners 101 and runners-up Afro Z.

April

• 25 – Mark Shuttleworth becomes the second self-funded spaceflight participant.
• 26 – A South African Air Force Impala Mk I jet crashes near the Albasini Dam between Louis Trichardt and Musina, killing pilot Captain Brett Burmeister.

May

• 20 – Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang announces at the World Health Assembly in Geneva that South Africa pledges R20 million to the Global Fund to Fight HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria.

June

• 16 – The Hector Pieterson Museum becomes the first museum to open in Soweto.
• 27 – Two South African Air Force Oryx helicopters, flying from the South African Antarctic research ship Agulhas, takes emergency food supplies and evacuates 21 Russian scientists from the German-owned Magdalena Oldendorff which has been trapped in ice off Antarctica since 16 June.

July

• 15 – Nelson Mandela calls on government and business leaders worldwide to find ways to provide access to treatment to people living with HIV/AIDS.

August

• 8 – The government announces the approval of an anti-retroviral roll-out plan.
• 9 – Ed Fagan leads a $50bn class action suit by a few apartheid-era victims against international firms and banks who profited from dealings with the apartheid government.
• 25 – The Medicines Control Council threatens to de-register Nevirapine unless further studies and appropriate documentation can show its efficacy in the prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV.

September

• 15 – Johan Pretorius, Boeremag member, is arrested and charged when he is found with a truckload of weapons and explosives in Lichtenburg.
• 20 – Boeremag members Dirk Hanekom and Henk van Zyl are arrested in Memel, Free State, but only Hanekom is charged.
• 22 – A South African Air Force Museum T-6G Harvard crashes into power lines during a flypast at Africa Aerospace and Defence 2002, being held at AFB Waterkloof, Pretoria. Pilot Colonel Jeff Earle escapes with minor injuries.

October

• 10 – President of South Africa Thabo Mbeki states that AIDS drugs are dangerously toxic to people and questions whether HIV or poverty is the true cause of Aids.
• 30 – Nine bombs explode in Soweto and one in Bronkhorstspruit. The Boeremag claims responsibility.

November

• 4 – Alleged Boeremag leader Tom Vorster is arrested in Pretoria for the October bombings.
• 22 – A bomb explodes at the Grand Central Airport in Midrand, Gauteng.
• 28 – A bomb explodes on a bridge on the border between KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape Provinces.

December

• 16–20 – The African National Congress holds its 51st National Conference in Stellenbosch.

Unknown date

• Mbongeni Ngema's controversial song "AmaNdiya" is banned.

Jessica Young 25 June Representing country for dancing in 2019

• 26 April – Steve Tshwete, activist and politician. (b. 1938)
• 15 May – Nellie Shabalala, musician. (b. 1953)
• 1 June – Hansie Cronje, cricketer. (b. 1969)
• 29 June – Stephen Fry, Springbok captain. (b. 1924)

• 2002 in South African television