LOOKING BACK

FROM THE SUNDAY TIMES 50 YEARS AGO

When a political party has been in power for 23 years, as the Nationalist Party has been, it begins to suffer from certain disabilities. One is that it becomes so set in its ways that it no longer finds it possible to adapt to changing circumstances. It discovers that its policies, tactics, relationships — even its future planning — are so predetermined by its past that its scope for innovation is minimal. It starts to lose its dynamic character, and its hold over its followers weakens. The next disability is that, as stagnation sets in, a process of polarisation begins in the higher levels of the party where the long-range thinking is done. A right-wing and a left-wing start to form. — February 28 1971

FROM THE SUNDAY TIMES 25 YEARS AGO

President Nelson Mandela bade the Sunday Times Everest Expedition farewell this week. Mr Mandela, the patron of the expedition, described the first official SA attempt to conquer the world’s highest mountain as an important national event. “Our young people are beginning to reach for the stars,” he said. The expedition will leave for Nepal on Saturday. Mr Mandela said that when New Zealander Edmund Hillary first conquered Everest in 1953, “his achievement captured the imagination and admiration of the world”. “But even if your expedition should be unsuccessful, it is important that you try, because even by trying, you will bring honour to your country,” he said.