Looking Back

From the Sunday Times 50 years ago

RONNIE van der Walt, a Cape Town boxer who has been fighting professionally for 12 years as a White person, was told this week by the Department of the Interior that he has been classified as Coloured. Weeping and trembling, he told us: “My heart is broken and my life destroyed.” He was to fight Blackie Swarts at Green Point Stadium on Wednesday night.

Major WC Hoffman, chairman of the Cape Boxing Board of Control, said on Saturday: “He is one of our best-behaved boys, and certainly our best boxer. As a board , however, we cannot ignore the laws of the country.” — January 29 1967

From the Sunday Times 25 years ago

THE most unlikely person to be asking his Boksburg neighbour for help in connecting up his children’s TV video games is South African Communist Party leader Chris Hani.

But his Afrikaans neighbour, Mrs Gerda Petzer, 34, wasn’t upset at this request for her husband’s help.

In fact , she was impressed when she eventually found out she had a “celebrity” living next door.

Mrs Limpho Hani said this weekend they moved into their new Boksburg house — their first family home in South Africa — because the price was right and “we fell in love with it — especially the kitchen”. — January 26 1992