LOOKING BACK

FROM THE SUNDAY TIMES 50 YEARS AGO

Johannesburg’s squad of women traffic inspectors has risen from two to three. This is the sole result so far from an “intensive” advertising campaign. Miss Olga Sherwell, Johannesburg’s only woman City Councillor, said this week that the establishment provided for 24 “meter maids” but at no time had there been even half that number. She finds this inexplicable. “To say I am disappointed is putting it mildly,” she said. “Here you have the biggest city in the country crying out for these women and failing, yet in other cities women are already playing a big part in checking on traffic.” Miss Sherwell, who played a big part in the selection of the attractive pink costume issued to women traffic inspectors, said she would not rest until the answer was found. — October 5 1969

FROM THE SUNDAY TIMES 25 YEARS AGO

When Wits law Professor Edwin Cameron takes his seat in Johannesburg’s Civic Theatre tomorrow, he will become the first person to face a formal, public interview for a job as a judge on a South African court. He and 23 other candidates will be questioned by members of the Judicial Service Commission, which must shortlist 10 for President Nelson Mandela’s final choice of six to the new Constitutional Court. This system was introduced to break with the old method of making appointments — described by critics as a “secret, clubby, old school-tie approach”. — October 2 1994