LOOKING BACK

FROM THE SUNDAY TIMES 50 YEARS AGO

The danger of turning White is over: And within a few months ALL of the 153 Soweto people whose skin has been affected should be completely Black again, believes Professor Marco Dogliotti, head of the Department of Dermatology at Baragwanath Hospital. The skin disorder which has caused the change is benign and temporary, he said. Prof Dogliotti and his team found it was caused by an ingredient found in certain skin lighteners. He added the manufacturers of these skin creams had changed their formula and had ordered them withdrawn. An estimated 70- to 80-million jars were sold every year, and one in 10,000 people in Soweto had changed colour. In September last year people began going to Baragwanath complaining that their skin pigmentation was turning yellow and pink, roughly the equivalent of a White complexion. Their skins did not change colour completely, but in embarrassing patches. — March 10 1974

FROM THE SUNDAY TIMES 25 YEARS AGO

The head of South Africa’s Home Affairs office fled and locked himself in a parking basement yesterday when confronted with proof of wide-scale ID document fraud in his department. A Sunday Times team presented Dumisani Buthelezi, acting regional representative in the Department of Home Affairs in Johannesburg, with an ID document bought by a reporter posing as an illegal alien. Buthelezi refused to answer questions and ran into the basement and locked the door. In a telephone interview 15 minutes later, Buthelezi confessed that he was linked to the sale of ID documents. — March 7 1999