Looking Back

From the Sunday Times 50 years ago

THE 31,000-ton South African fishmeal factory ship, the Willem Barendsz, and 18 fishing boats broke loose in the Cape Town docks yesterday in a roaring northwest gale which touched 73 miles an hour and caused near chaos in the docks.

For six hours from 11.30 on Friday night harbour tugs and launches were on constant call to hold ships against their berths in the gale.

The Willem Barendsz snapped about 22 steel and nylon mooring lines and broke free from her berth in the Duncan Dock about 3 a.m.

On land, the storm tore off roofs and broke power and telephone lines. — June 11 1967

From the Sunday Times 25 years ago

POLICE are investigating how a small group of town officials made exorbitant profits on state land deals at the expense of the taxpayer. The transactions, which netted profits of up to 660%, involved the SA Development Trust. Auditor Jan Strydom investigated land deals in Thaba Nchu at the time of its incorporation into Bophuthatswana in 1983. One of the people named in the report said every transaction had been approved “by one or other cabinet minister”. Members of the Thaba Nchu town council bought erven at between R840 and Rl 000 each. These were sold to the trust within a year for prices ranging from R57 220. — June 7 1992