LOOKING BACK

FROM THE SUNDAY TIMES 50 YEARS AGO

A white man and his Zulu wife left South Africa this week for a new life in his home country, Australia. They are Mr. Kenneth Smith, 22, a former Durban hotel worker, and his wife, Dawn, 24, who was a nurse at the King Edward VIII non-White hospital in Durban. They sailed from Durban aboard the SS Oriana — in separate cabins until they had crossed the South African three-mile limit. Then they moved into one cabin to live as man and wife. The couple married nine months ago in Rhodesia after Mr. Smith had paid lobola of R200 to Dawn’s parents, Mr. and Mrs. P.B. Mbele. They lived in Durban for the past three months. Mr. Smith spoke about apartheid with bitterness. “We’re all human beings, aren’t we?” he said. “We all have the same colour blood.” — April 16 1972

FROM THE SUNDAY TIMES 25 YEARS AGO

The deputy Speaker of Parliament, Baleka Mbete Kgositsile, is one of 44 people being investigated by Mpumalanga detectives for being in possession of a fraudulent licence. However, Kgositsile claims that she was legally issued with the licence after being given special treatment, as she didn’t “have time to stand in queues”. She says Mpumalanga’s minister for safety and security, Steve Mabona, sent his car and bodyguards to collect her in Johannesburg for a driving test in Delmas on October 1. She also says the provincial traffic director, Henry Brazer, travelled from Nelspruit to Delmas to test her. However, a Sunday Times investigation has found that there is no record of Kgositsile being tested at the Delmas testing centre. — April 13 1997