See also: 1670s in South Africa, other events of the 1680s, 1690s in South Africa and the Timeline of South African history.

Events

1680

• Land belonging to the Khoikhoi is given to Dutch farmers along the Eerste River in the Cape Colony

1681

• March - Deported Islamic religious leaders arrive from Batavia, later to become the Cape Malay community

1682

• 8 June - The Johanna, a British East Indiaman sailing from Kent to Surat, India under the command of Captain Robert Brown is shipwrecked off Cape Agulhas

1683

• 24 October - Olof Bergh, a Swedish explorer, arrived back in Cape Town from his second expedition to Namaqualand

1684

• The Dutch East India Company unilaterally establishes price controls over hides, skins, ivory and ostrich eggs in the Cape Colony

1685

• The Cape Colonists send a commissioner to Europe to attract more settlers
• Copper is discovered by the settlers in Namaqualand
• Simon van der Stel, the Governor of the Cape Colony, is granted a 900-morgen property and is named Groot Constantia
• Simon van der Stel visits Namaqualand

1686

• A Dutch Reformed Church is founded in Stellenbosch, Cape Colony

1687

• Free burghers in the Cape Colony petition the Dutch East India Company to extend the slave trade to private enterprise
• The Paarl settlement is established in the Cape Colony

1688

• April - French Huguenot refugees arrive after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes
• Simon van der Stel, the Governor of the Cape Colony settles the Huguenot refugees in the present day Drakenstein, Franschhoek and Wellington areas which were beyond the Cape Colony and belonged to the Khoikhoi people

1689

• Serious friction develops between the Huguenots and the Dutch settlers
• 26 April - The French ship Normandie is captured by the Dutch in Table Bay

Births

• 1689 - Jean de la Fontaine, Governor of the Cape, is born

Deaths

• 1689 - IJsbrand Goske, Governor of the Cape Colony, dies