LOOKING BACK

FROM THE SUNDAY TIMES 50 YEARS AGO

A report that the Government may establish a standing parliamentary committee to investigate “Press lies” is causing concern among Opposition MPs. They agree that of all the methods the Government could devise to deal with the Press this would be the worst.

In such a committee Nationalist MPs would be in the majority. They would then sit in judgment on the Opposition Press. The report published in the Nationalist Press said “the feeling prevails strongly in high political circles that such a committee should be appointed to hear complaints against newspapers”. — December 24 1967

FROM THE SUNDAY TIMES 25 YEARS AGO

Some of SA’s leading corporations are paying little or no tax at a time when the government is scrambling to find additional funds to finance its spending.

Almost a fifth of the JSE’s industrial companies that detailed their tax payments in their latest audited results, enjoyed an effective rate of under 20%. Iscor, labelled as the world’s most profitable steel company by Fortune magazine, paid just 0.1% of its profit in tax for the year to June. Anglo American Industrial Corporation, which houses companies like Mondi and Hiveld Steel, paid tax at a rate of 13% last year.

— December 27 1992