Looking Back

From the Sunday Times 50 years ago

THE Prime Minister, Dr Verwoerd, is prepared to “extend the hand of friendship to the rest of Africa”. As a token of this friendship he is willing to accept a “roving ambassador” appointed by the independent African States to represent them in South Africa.

Dr Verwoerd disclosed this in two long interviews which he granted this week to Stuart Cloete, the South African novelist.

Dr Verwoerd told Mr Cloete that South Africa was prepared to give millions of rands to the newly independent African States if they would only try to understand South Africa and accept that its apartheid policy was here to stay. Dr Verwoerd said he would never accept the proposal made recently by Mr Kenneth Kaunda, Northern Rhodesia’s Prime Minister, to send a whole embassy to South Africa. — March 30 1964

From the Sunday Times 25 years ago

THE Namibian peace deal was in the balance last night as the South African Government threatened to throw the entire United Nations force out of the territory.

The warning — issued directly to UN secretary-general Javier Perez de Cuellar — followed an announcement that 38 Swapo insurgents had been killed in a firefight with Namibian police on the northern border this weekend. Two policemen were killed and 14 wounded.

Last night British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, after her whirlwind visit to the territory, called an urgent meeting of the UN Security Council and strongly condemned the incident. She said the clash was a “most serious challenge” to the agreement and to the UN. — April 2 1989