Looking Back
From the Sunday Times 50 years ago
FACED with mounting opposition in South Africa — and growing concern in Nationalist circles — the Government will have to decide by Monday whether to postpone the Prohibition of Improper Interference Bill, or to go ahead with it regardless of internal and international consequences.
Described as “totalitarian” and “half-baked”, the Bill seeks not only to prevent the Progressive Party from winning any of the four Coloureds’ Representatives seats in the Assembly in the November elections, but to introduce drastic political apartheid between Whites, Africans, Coloureds and Indians. — September 25 1966
From the Sunday Times 25 years ago
A MARRIAGE “made in hell” was laid bare in a court after a violent spree that shocked Nelspruit.
On trial — for culpable homicide, attempted murder, arson and assault — was secretary Magda Rothman, 45, who went on an arson and shooting rampage last November.
Giving evidence in aggravation of sentence, Magda’s husband of 24 years, Danie, a businessman, pleaded with the judge to jail his wife.
In a two-hour judgment, Mr Justice Louis Weyers said the Rothmans’ pending divorce was 23 years too late. Mr Rothman had admitted that he repeatedly assaulted his wife and that her life had been hell. — September 22 1991