LOOKING BACK

FROM THE SUNDAY TIMES 50 YEARS AGO

South African Airways has embarked on a new era of growth in which it will carry four million passengers a year and earn a revenue of R240-million a year within the next decade. Mr Alex Conradie, chief executive of SAA, told me this week that this new era in aviation would be based on a highly sophisticated computer installation … [that will] link SAA up with major aviation nations on an instantaneous basis. The work currently being conducted at Jan Smuts Airport near Johannesburg, due to be finished in 1971, will make this one of the world’s major airports — even bigger than Orly, near Paris. —June1 1969

FROM THE SUNDAY TIMES 25 YEARS AGO

Land reform could cost R10-billion over the next six years, says Land Affairs Minister Derek Hanekom. The ANC’s reform plan … aims to make 30% of farm land available to blacks in six years. Mr Hanekom has a budget of R92-million this year for land reform … A problem is that Land Bank rules preclude loans to small-scale farmers. Mr Hanekom intends establishing a commission to investigate the Land Bank, the Development Bank, the Agricultural Credit Board and commercial banks lending to farmers. He hopes a rural bank will follow. Resettlement will be coupled with financial and technical support … Parliament will be asked to establish a land claims court this year. The Commission on Land Allocation has received 1,300 applications. — May 29 1994