LOOKING BACK

FROM THE SUNDAY TIMES 50 YEARS AGO

A political storm has burst over the heads of the four South African sports administrators who announced they were prepared to send multi-racial teams abroad in an attempt to preserve South Africa’s last remaining international sports links. In a full-scale attack on the four sports chiefs, the Government-supporting newspaper, the Vaderland, suggests that they deliberately chose the Christmas period, when the Cabinet is on vacation, to make their announcement. If the Vaderland accurately reflects Government opinion, then when the Cabinet reassembles in January it will repudiate the sports chiefs — and that will be the end virtually of South Africa in international sport. — December 21 1969

FROM THE SUNDAY TIMES 25 YEARS AGO

President Nelson Mandela yesterday called for a moral crusade to put an end to rampant corruption in the public and private sectors, the pillaging of taxpayers’ money and the culture of non-payment for services. In his first report to his party conference since being elected president, Mr Mandela told about 3,000 delegates in Bloemfontein that in the last days of apartheid rule South Africa had become a society in which the dividing line between the legal and the illegal had become blurred. To counter this he proposed a campaign, with the participation of the religious community, to set the country on a new moral footing. — December 18 1994