LOOKING BACK

FROM THE SUNDAY TIMES 50 YEARS AGO

Sunday Times reporters and photographers flew a total of 2 050 miles yesterday to provide coverage of news and sporting events which appear in today’s issue. To provide this coverage, three aircraft were chartered. One aircraft took a three-man team to Durban to cover the “July” race meeting, a second flew a photographer to Kimberley for the Lions rugby match, and a third flew two reporters to Upington to report on the speech by the Prime Minister, Mr. B.J. Vorster. “We were kept so busy by the Sunday Times that we had to hire two other aircraft to meet our other commitments,” Mr. Louis Malan, managing director of the charter company, said last night. — July 7 1968

FROM THE SUNDAY TIMES 25 YEARS AGO

Nothing, it seems, is too costly for Ciskei’s Brigadier Oupa Gqozo in his quest to be seen as a popular civilian-style leader. He spent R102 000 of public money on a new official portrait. The money went to East London photographer Rob Pollock in January, and was paid out of Ciskei treasury coffers as the expense had not been budgeted. It is not known how many framed photographs Gqozo got for the taxpayers’ money, but a top Ciskei government source says “many”. Mr Pollock has confirmed he did the job, but says for professional reasons he cannot divulge specifics of the deal without permission. The picture of the “new” brigadier permeates almost the entire homeland. — July 11 1968