LOOKING BACK

FROM THE SUNDAY TIMES 50 YEARS AGO

South Africans who land at airports or docks with undesirable publications or objects will be liable to prosecution if the Government adopts a recommendation of a commission of inquiry into censorship, whose report was tabled in parliament on Friday. The report says it is not an offence at present to possess written pornography, although possession of pornographic photographs is an offence. The report recommends that the possession of written pornography be made a statutory offence. This it says would “give the authorities the opportunity to take steps against persons returning from abroad with undesirable material which is not declared to customs”. It recommends a complete restructuring of the present censorship system and the closing of various loopholes. — February 3 1974

FROM THE SUNDAY TIMES 25 YEARS AGO

The ANC has signalled that the Government will not pay reparations to more than 20,000 people classified as victims of gross human rights violations by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Instead of making payments to individuals, the Government will seek to make symbolic reparations to communities and the nation as a whole, as it cannot “attach monetary value to the suffering”, the ANC’s secretary-general, Kgalema Motlanthe, said on Friday. The move will come as a blow to many officially designated victims of apartheid who had pinned their hopes on receiving R26,000 each, spread over six years, in line with the commission’s reparations and rehabilitation programme. If the government were to follow these recommendations, the bill would amount to R520m. — February 7 1999