LOOKING BACK

FROM THE SUNDAY TIMES 50 YEARS AGO

Cliff Drysdale, the Springbok tennis professional, has bitterly attacked the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (NAACP) and its Boston president, Jack E. Robinson, for staging anti-apartheid protests at the first round of the United States professional championships this week. In an interview yesterday, Drysdale said the NAACP was exploiting the apartheid issue to restore its own domestic image among radical Black Americans, who regard it as an “Uncle Tom” organisation. — August 8 1971

FROM THE SUNDAY TIMES 25 YEARS AGO

A furious Sol Kerzner has hit back at Bantu Holomisa, denying that he paid R2-million to the ANC’s election fund and describing the former Transkei leader as a “manipulative, incompetent liar”. Meanwhile, a defiant Holomisa yesterday challenged ANC bosses to act on their threats to sue him, saying he would willingly defend his claims about Deputy President Thabo Mbeki and Sports Minister Steve Tshwete in court. Kerzner’s statement and Holomisa’s taunt were the latest salvos in a war of words caused by Holomisa’s firing as a deputy minister last week, a row that has threatened to shatter unity in the ANC. In sensational developments this week, Holomisa claimed that Mbeki and Tshwete had “accepted favours” from Kerzner and that Kerzner had offered the ANC R2-million to bolster its election coffers. — August 4 1996