LOOKING BACK
FROM THE SUNDAY TIMES 50 YEARS AGO
Hillbrow is on the eve of another big building boom. Within a few months, a R100-million building project will begin to transform this Johannesburg suburb. Dr GF Jacobs, MP for Hillbrow, told me this week that some of the biggest building companies in Southern Africa had decided to sink millions in developing it into a “miniature New York”. The area has been dubbed a “den of iniquity”, but Dr Jacobs recently toured the suburbs with police officers, visiting “gambling establishments”, “hippie joints”, coffee bars and places of so-called vice, and told me: “Hillbrow is in essence a respectable area. Many prominent citizens live here in luxury flats.” — September 29 1968
FROM THE SUNDAY TIMES 25 YEARS AGO
Following a watershed judgment by the Appellate Division this week, the South African Medical and Dental Council will investigate disciplinary action against a doctor who told two golfing friends about a patient with AIDS. The appeal court ruled that Brakpan GP Dr Matthys Kruger had wrongly breached doctor-patient confidentiality. After promising Barry McGeary that he would treat his HIV status in confidence, Dr Kruger informed a doctor and a dentist of his patient’s condition during a game of golf. Lawyers for Mr McGeary, who died before the case was finalised, claimed damages, saying word spread through Brakpan and the resulting stress hastened Mr McGeary’s death. — October 3 1993