LOOKING BACK

FROM THE SUNDAY TIMES 50 YEARS AGO

A radio warning, broadcast last Sunday night in one of the “Broken Link” series, that pop music and drug addiction had something in common, has been condemned by both psychologists and experts in music. Songs by the Beatles, previously banned by the S.A.B.C, were broadcast in an attempt to show that some pop songs promoted the sale of drugs to teenagers. Dr. G.A. Doyle, a senior lecturer in psychology at the University of the Witwatersrand, told me there was no evidence that the Beatle cult could be linked with drug addiction. Dr. Doyle said “there were always conservative elements trying to raise an objection to the thoughts and strivings of young people”. — August 25 1968

FROM THE SUNDAY TIMES 25 YEARS AGO

Nelson Mandela’s grandson Mandla had a bitter taste of township justice when he was beaten up after accidentally breaking a taxi window. The young man disembarked from a Johannesburg minibus taxi last week and slammed the door so hard that a window broke. The unnamed driver demanded that he pay for it. Mandla, 17, a pupil at a city college, told the man he had no money. The furious taxi driver and his colleagues bundled the teenager into the taxi and drove to its owner in Diepkloof hostel, where they beat him up. A senior ANC source said: “It certainly wasn’t a kidnapping. The men just wanted payment.” — August 29 1993