LOOKING BACK

FROM THE SUNDAY TIMES 50 YEARS AGO

Hundreds of bitterly disappointed, educationally qualified students have had to be turned away from South African universities this year because there is no room for them in the “restricted” faculties such as medicine, engineering, dentistry and architecture. University authorities describe this as both a national and personal tragedy, for it means that the country is deprived of the skilled, trained workers it so urgently needs, and so many young people’s hopes are blighted. Well over 600 “suitably qualified” would-be students were turned away from the University of the Witwatersrand — applicants who would have been accepted had there been facilities for them. — February 23 1969 FROM THE SUNDAY TIMES 25 YEARS AGO

The ANC has accused the state oil procurement agency, the Strategic Fuel Fund (SFF), of bumbling. The ANC says the history of National Party management of the petroleum industry is littered with shocking investment decisions, secret deals with shady oil traders and a “blatant disregard for the principle of transparency”. “Government’s SFF, having honed its skills at underhand crude-oil trading during the apartheid years, seems unable to kick the habit,” says the ANC, which accuses the SFF board of being “a closed shop of Government cronies, unaccountable to the SA petroleum industry, let alone the general public”. — February 20 1994