LOOKING BACK

FROM THE SUNDAY TIMES 50 YEARS AGO

Beautiful Johannesburg model, 24-year-old Miss Dorothy Agranat, the only daughter of a wealthy Cape Town family, wants to approach Mrs Helen Suzman, MP, to introduce a motion in parliament making it compulsory for all married men in South Africa to wear wedding rings. Those who failed to wear their rings on the correct finger at all times would be liable to a heavy penalty. Miss Agranat, who claims she has the support of all her girl friends, married and unmarried, is certain almost every woman in South Africa would sign a petition tomorrow requesting the government to pass an act making the wearing of a ring by married men as compulsory as a driving licence. — February 18 1968

FROM THE SUNDAY TIMES 25 YEARS AGO

Thorns 6cm long were strewn in a primary school long-jump pit in conservative Christiana this week by AWB supporters determined to scuttle a nonracial children’s athletics meeting. But the event went ahead, with two black youngsters taking part. The primary school had stepped in after the local high school management committee had withdrawn permission for its better-equipped sports ground to be used because blacks would take part. Militants reacted by digging up the primary school athletics track in three places. A schoolmaster said the thorns were sifted from the pit before the meeting. — February 21 1993