LOOKING BACK

FROM THE SUNDAY TIMES 50 YEARS AGO

Excelsior, the 700-population town whose inhabitants say “life is the same here as in any other small Free State town”, is smarting under the attention it is receiving after the arrest of five leading citizens under Immorality Act allegations. One is the local Nationalist

Party secretary and three are well-to-do farmers. The fifth, Mr. Johannes “Callie” Calitz, a town councillor, shot himself after being released on bail. For the remaining accused, there was some comfort: their families are standing by them. The firmest supporter of any of the accused is Mr. B.C. Bezuidenhout, whose son, Adam Johannes Bezuidenhout, 42, is jointly charged with a servant, 40-year-old Sanna Chacka. — November 8 1970

FROM THE SUNDAY TIMES 25 YEARS AGO

The myth of a white homeland was shattered this week when the Conservative Party and the Freedom Front suffered electoral humiliation in every major town they claim as part of a Volkstaat. The only right-wing victory in the local government elections came in the semi-desert settlement of Orania, which was won by the Freedom Front. The two parties failed to win a single seat in Pretoria, the city they earmarked as the Volkstaat capital. And in the Free State the two parties won just 16 out of 840 seats. FF leader Constand Viljoen said he would send his sprinkling of councillors on a course to teach them “how to deal as Afrikaners in a situation where you are totally overpowered”. — November 5 1995