LOOKING BACK

FROM THE SUNDAY TIMES 50 YEARS AGO

Mr Richard Saunders, a Negro official in the United States foreign service, and his wife Emily were asked to leave a Durban beachfront hotel nightclub on Friday, on the grounds that they were not White. They were staying at the Blue Waters Hotel, and after Mr Saunders, whose job carries diplomatic status, had protested to the hotel manager, Mr R Oldam, the couple were allowed to dine in the nightclub on condition that they did not dance. Mr and Mrs Saunders, who had been in the country for three weeks, said they regarded the action against them as idiotic. “People had been so darned nice to us in Cape Town and Johannesburg that I forgot what’s under the surface, but this has brought me down to earth,” said Mrs Saunders. — March 17 1974

FROM THE SUNDAY TIMES 25 YEARS AGO

ANC and IFP top guns Deputy President Thabo Mbeki and Mangosuthu Buthelezi launched their election campaigns yesterday, pledging to lower tensions in the troubled province. Mbeki went walkabout in several Durban centres and made a concerted effort to woo the Indian vote by visiting Chatsworth, Verulam and Isipingo. Buthelezi, meanwhile, addressed a massive rally in Umlazi, traditionally an ANC stronghold, where he drew more than 10,000 supporters. Mbeki, braving humidity and intermittent rain, told the Sunday Times he and Buthelezi were worried about political tensions in the province. He also endorsed a planned commission of inquiry into the province’s history of violence, which he said was vital to root out those behind the killings. — March 14 1999