LOOKING BACK

FROM THE SUNDAY TIMES 50 YEARS AGO

South Africa’s girl soldiers are to get a new-look uniform to “glamorise” their image. They were shown for the first time this week at the first women’s fashion show staged by the Defence Force. The show was held at Voortrekkerhoogte. One major change announced by Lieutenant-General C.R. Cockroft, the Surgeon-General, was the ending of the traditional starched white uniform of the military nurse. Lieutenant-General Cockroft said the old uniform, which “bulges in the wrong places and does nothing for sick soldiers’ morale”, was to be replaced by a garment “designed to flatter the feminine figure”. Another innovation is the woman officer’s full-length evening dress. — May 9 1971

FROM THE SUNDAY TIMES 25 YEARS AGO

Documents presented in the trial of former Defence Minister Magnus Malan suggest former State President FW de Klerk may have approved funding for the Inkatha paramilitary force which allegedly carried out the Kwamakhutha massacre in 1987. The prosecution has already produced documents that allege Mr De Klerk and former Minister of Foreign Affairs Pik Botha were present at a state security council meeting in 1986 when Operation Marion — the SA Defence Force’s clandestine training of 200 Inkatha recruits in Caprivi and their subsequent deployment in KwaZulu-Natal — was discussed.