LOOKING BACK

FROM THE SUNDAY TIMES 50 YEARS AGO

Criticism of the student diary of the University of Port Elizabeth for 1968 was expressed when it was found that more than 85 per cent of the contents was in Afrikaans. The diary, the joint work of all 15 members of the Students’ Representative Council, has 160 pages, of which 139 are printed in Afrikaans. The remaining 21 are printed in English, or partly in English and partly in Afrikaans. The text consists of information, advertisements and names of the day and month. A foreword by the principal of the university, Professor E. J. Marais, is printed only in Afrikaans. Almost 800 students attend the University. About half are English-speaking. — March 31 1968

FROM THE SUNDAY TIMES 25 YEARS AGO

Members of 60 dispossessed communities are planning a national campaign — including protest marches — to press their claims to land expropriated under the Group Areas Act. At a meeting in Bethlehem last weekend, the National Land Committee agreed to broaden land claims to include communities with an “historical connection” to land. Strategies approved by representatives of the communities include marches, pickets and demonstrations, sit-ins at government buildings, a signature campaign and lobbying of international observers, peace monitors, political organisations, unions, civics, foreign embassies, the Organisation for African Unity and the United Nations. — April 4 1993