LOOKING BACK

FROM THE SUNDAY TIMES 50 YEARS AGO

Miss Evon de Meister, 21, a Johannesburg actress whose semi-nude photograph in the onand-off banned magazine, Scope, was described by the Publications Control Board as a pose “calculated to stimulate sexual desires in male youths and likely to corrupt the minds of young men”, has reacted strongly to the accusation. Miss De Meister said: “I would like the Board to know that I am a model and an actress by profession, not a prostitute. I am a perfectly normal and decent girl doing a job just the same as members of the Board. For them to accuse me of depraving and corrupting the minds of young men is a terrible insult, which has hurt me deeply.”[In] the photograph of Miss De Meister ... she appears without a top but is covering her breasts with her arms.

— May 14 1972

FROM THE SUNDAY TIMES 25 YEARS AGO

President Nelson Mandela has bought a new home for R2.1-million in Johannesburg’s Houghton. The President and his sweetheart, Graca Machel, inspected several houses in the neighbourhood and chose the one Machel liked the best, said a neighbour. The President’s office confirmed the purchase but dampened neighbours’ speculation that it spelt a new stage in the couple’s romance. “The relationship between the President and Mrs Machel is not changing. Mrs Machel lives in Mozambique and visits the President from time to time. The house does not change the relationship,” presidential aide Professor Jakes Gerwel said yesterday. The white double-storey house with large, woodframed windows is close to Mandela’s present home. May 11 1997 —