Short Cut To Ruin

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32194, 13 January 1970, Page 9

Short Cut To Ruin

(N.Z. Press Assn.—Copyright) LONDON. The mini-skirt can be blamed for virtually everything that is wrong with South Africa today, according to an anti-mini-skirt campaigner interviewed by a Cape Town newspaper. Mr Gert Yssel, leader of a nation-wide campaign, aimed at banning the miniskirt, says that the garment has dealt civilisation “the severest blow,” according to "The Times.” Mr Yssel goes on to say: “For defying decent dress, God has punished us with the water scarcity, the severe drought in the Cape. The continuous earthquakes in the geologically stable Western Province, the millions lost on the stock exchange by ordin-

ary people and the decisive; international set-back of. South Africa on the gold' question.” Not content with the invest-. ment, farm and gold fields, Mr Yssel moves into the realm I of sport to blame the miniskirt for the indifferent per-; formance of the Springbok i Rugby tourists in Britain. How British Rugby players, who come from the new Gomorrah which actually invented the mini-skirt, manage to win most of the time is not explained, “The Times” said.

Mr Yssel expressed his gratitude to a churchman who darkly hinted that the mini-skirt could lead to “forbidden deeds.” He expresses his shock, however, that the Dean of Johannesburg ventured to disagree with the other clerics on this. God was the first holy dress designer, tailor and dressmaker, Mr Yssel told the newspaper. After creating

man, he created clothing for him.

(Perhaps this new argument may explain the divine purpose behind the fig tree.) The interview concludes by quoting Mr Yssel as saying: “Alas, a dark future awaits South Africa (it must be presumed that ‘dark’ is not a pun).

“I foresee the institution of extra divorce courts in the near future. The time has arrived when thousands of young fathers are not sure that babies born are their children.”

In spite of Mr Yssel, and his frequently publicised anti-mini-skirt campaign, the young women of South Africa continue to invite the twentieth century versions of fire and brimstone, including stock market slumps and defeats on the Rugby field, by defiantly wearing the; mini-skirt in a climate fori which it might specifically have been invented.