LOOKING BACK

FROM THE SUNDAY TIMES 50 YEARS AGO

South Africa’s first strike of natural gas in bulk is not so important because of its volume — but because the oil hunters hit it the first time they put down a drill. This comment on the continental shelf discovery off Plettenberg Bay was made to me by Dr. P. E. Rousseau, chairman of Sasol and Gascor — the South African Gas Corporation — who said, “This makes one most optimistic about future finds.” The gas-gusher, yielding 25-million cubic feet of natural gas a day from its upper zone and an additional 10-million cubic feet from a lower reservoir, had not a “very big volume”, Dr. Rousseau said, but it could do the work of 400,000 tons of coal a year. — March 30 1969

FROM THE SUNDAY TIMES 25 YEARS AGO

Disgruntled South African nuclear and rocket scientists are threatening to export closely guarded secrets about the country’s arms programme unless they are paid R4.5-million in retrenchment benefits. A spokesman claiming to represent 16 scientists admitted this week the threat amounted to blackmail. “We want a settlement but negotiation has failed and we don’t want to have to take this to the industrial court. Our disclosures will prove embarrassing for Armscor, Denel (an offshoot of Armscor) and the Nationalist government,” he warned. The group has unreleased details about South Africa’s past cooperation with Israel on missile technology. — March 27 1994