LOOKING BACK

FROM THE SUNDAY TIMES 50 YEARS AGO

South Africa’s film censors are given no training for their work. They “grope in the dark”. The “whole system hangs in the air”. Sometimes a film panel views a comedy and “laughs themselves sick ”— but then the film is banned. Decisions are inconsistent and some panel members, especially women, just want to “cut, cut, cut”. These are some of the scathing criticisms of the country’s censorship system contained in the report of the Parliamentary Select Committee on the Publications and Entertainment Act. The criticisms come from members of the Publications Control Board and its panels.

Criticism of the board’s chairman, Mr. Jannie Kruger, is implicit in some of the evidence given to the Select Committee. Taken together, the evidence indicates that a complete overhaul of the censorship system is urgently needed.

— September 30 1973

FROM THE SUNDAY TIMES 25 YEARS AGO

More than a thousand Lesotho soldiers handed themselves over to the South Africa-led Southern African Development Community force in Maseru yesterday as calm returned to the country. The 1,120 soldiers handed themselves over at Ramagose base in Maseru after being given an order, on Radio Lesotho on Friday, to report to the facility. Colonel Robbie Hartslief, the commander of the joint South Africa-Botswana SADC force that on Tuesday moved into Lesotho, announced that the troops had moved to suppress unrest in rural towns. South Africa has moved 450 more soldiers into Lesotho. Troops were also moved into Wepener in the Free State on the Lesotho border. September 27 1998 —