LOOKING BACK

FROM THE SUNDAY TIMES 50 YEARS AGO

Mr Braam Raubenheimer, Deputy Minister of Bantu Development, this week delivered a blow to the Port St Johns campaign to retain its White status when he made it clear that categorical government promises on the issue might not have been fulfilled. His comments followed a report in the Sunday Times last week that written assurances that the district would never be handed to the Transkei had been made by Dr Verwoerd, Mr MC de Wet (former Minister of Bantu Administration and Development), and the present Minister of Bantu Development, Mr MC Botha. Mr Raubenheimer, in a telephone interview, said the “issue “can’t be weighed too heavily”. He said under the 1936 Land Act a quota of land for the Transkei was still outstanding.

— January 20 1974

FROM THE SUNDAY TIMES 25 YEARS AGO

Richmond warlord Sifiso Nkabinde died in a hail of bullets yesterday, sparking fears of renewed violence in the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands town, as his enraged supporters stoned police after the killing. He was gunned down as he was about to climb into his 525i BMW outside the Bridegeway supermarket in Richmond yesterday morning. Three gunmen in a brown Toyota armed with R4 and R5 automatic rifles sprayed more than 80 bullets at Nkabinde and his bodyguard, Simphiwe Dlamini. Nkabinde, 38, the national secretarygeneral of the United Democratic Movement, was the ANC’s warlord in the battle with Inkatha for control of the Midlands in the 1980s, a role he continued to play until he was expelled from the ANC for spying two years ago. January 24 1999 —