LOOKING BACK

FROM THE SUNDAY TIMES 50 YEARS AGO

In a shattering autobiography released [in New York] this week, 28-year-old Xaviera Hollander — now famous as one of New York’s madams — reveals lurid details of her sexual exploits in South Africa. In “The Happy Hooker” she attributes her “nymphomaniacal behaviour” in SA to boredom through belonging to a pampered White minority ruling class. “The narrow-minded Government — the Afrikaans-speaking people and not the more liberal-minded English — think any form of sex (even marital sex) is a sin.” Hollander tells how she grew impatient with South African men. “They are basically selfish in their urges, insisting on the right to make love when and how they want to.”

— February 6 1972

FROM THE SUNDAY TIMES 25 YEARS AGO

PW Botha’s former personal physician, charged this week with selling the designer drug ecstasy, allegedly arranged Mandrax deals as head of the defence force’s chemical warfare unit. A Truth and Reconciliation Commission document alleges that Dr Wouter Basson offered 100,000 Mandrax tablets to a former Civil Co-operation Bureau operator. It says the Mandrax was an inducement to supply poisoned beer to Zulus in the Transkei in 1992. Basson told the court allegations under investigation by the truth commission that he was involved in apartheid-era crimes while commanding the 7th Medical Battalion arose from “confusion” over his identity.