2012 in South Africa

• President – Jacob Zuma
• Deputy President – Kgalema Motlanthe
• Chief Justice – Mogoeng Mogoeng

The Cabinet, together with the President and the Deputy President, forms part of the Executive.

• Eastern Cape Province: Noxolo Kiviet
• Free State Province: Ace Magashule
• Gauteng Province: Nomvula Mokonyane
• KwaZulu-Natal Province: Zweli Mkhize
• Limpopo Province: Cassel Mathale
• Mpumalanga Province: David Mabuza
• North West Province: Thandi Modise
• Northern Cape Province: Hazel Jenkins
• Western Cape Province: Helen Zille

May

• 22-24 – OpenForum conference is held in Cape Town.^[1]

August

• 10 – Marikana miners initiate a Wildcat strike.
• 13 – Striking miners hack to death two security guards and two policemen and remove body parts from the corpses to make muti that would make them "invincible against police bullets".
• 16 – Police open fire on a group of striking Marikana miners, killing 34 and injuring approximately 78.

September

• 18 – Eight South African citizens are killed in Kabul, Afghanistan, when a suicide bomber blows herself up.^[2]

October

• 1 – The South African Government commissions an inquiry into the shooting at Marikana.
• 18 – A South African Defence Force soldier attached to the African Union/United Nations peacekeeping forces in Sudan is killed and 3 others injured in an ambush in Northern Darfur.^[3]
• 22 – A prison van returning dozens of prisoners to Johannesburg Central prison from court in Randburg is hit by a bomb explosion. At least three are killed, and others wounded; two prisoners escape the van but are re-arrested.^[4]

November

• 11 – A runaway fire destroys 76 houses in St Francis Bay.

• 21 January – Jeffrey Ntuka, South African footballer .^[5] (b. 1985)
• 2 March – Lawrence Anthony, author. (b. 1950)
• 30 April – Sicelo Shiceka, South African politician (b. 1966)
• 5 May – Roy Padayachie,^[6] Minister of Public Service and Administration of the Republic of South Africa.^[7] (b. 1950)
• 15 May – John Murray, 11th Duke of Atholl, surveyor (b. 1929)
• 27 August – Dr. Neville Alexander, linguist, academic and anti-apartheid campaigner (b. 1936)
• 21 October – Alfred Kumalo, photographer. (b. 1930)