History
SAX Appeal first graced Cape Town’s fine streets back in 1933, only eight years after RAG began. As the editor of the 1948 edition put it: “The first SAX Appeal appeared ages ago when men were men and women were so loose they rattled.” Indeed.
1933—Born!
In 1933, the magazine cost a shilling. A simple 32-page rag of cartoons and limericks, peppered with advertisements for Bovril, electricity (back when nobody could understand the benefits of an electrified city) and “Springbok cigarettes”, which always featured a doctor smoking a cigarette before performing surgery on some scantily-clad woman. Those were simpler times.
1942—Banned!
It was 1942. The world was at war and senses of humour were diminished. SAX Appeal hit its first institutional snag when it published an article which detailed a (presumably) fictional account of the author’s visit to a nudist colony. Its title? “Visit to a Nudist Colony”. Those really were simpler times. Though tame by today’s standards, the article stuck in the craw of the university authorities and incurred complaints from the public. So it was that SAX Appeal got banned by its own university.
The ban lasted five years, during which time UCT RAG attempted to raise funds with a replacement magazine, Boomalak. It is pure poetic coincidence that “Boomalak” rhymes with “Extra Kak”, but that’s what the magazine was. Extra kak. Monitored closely by the university authorities, Boomalak received numerous complaints about its sheer tedium, and was accused by one journalist of have “a soap-wiped tongue”. Thankfully, by 1948 the dark clouds of war had lifted, and SAX Appeal returned to its rightful place as RAG’s right-hand mag.
1971—Banned!
This was the heyday of the Publications Control Board, a government-established body invested with the power to ban “undesirable items” from the public eye. What constituted an undesirable item? Well, anything they didn’t like, really. Books, newspapers, films and even statues that were contrary to the Nat party’s way of life. Any publication worth its salt was subject to numerous warnings from lip-licking, finger-wagging authority figures. The finger-wagging was not enough, however, for SAX Appeal 1971, which was banned by the Board and publicly burnt by students in a Christian society. The point of contention? The naughty editors had dared to joke about the most important figure in the whole NP government: Jesus Christ. A joke about St Peter, God and Jesus playing a game of golf—that’s all it took to lead SAX ‘71 into infamy and out of publication. As one of the book-burners pointed out to a nearby journalist, “It is completely unallowed to joke about Christ.”
To which we say, “Why so? I bet he’d joke about you.”
1980—Naked cover man!
Another footnote in history was made by the 1980 cover of SAX, which featured what was probably the first male nude cover in South African history. The cover girl, then-student Eric Atmore, appeared nude on the front cover with a “banned” strip across his personal assets. This edition enjoyed record sales and, 28 years later, for the 75th anniversary edition, lo and behold, Eric agreed to do another nude photo shoot with us.
2010 – SAXy, stormy and still on top!
Today, SAX Appeal remains the largest annual contributor to RAG’s coffers. At 77 years old, we still seek the best buttons to press, the correct envelope to push, the proper applecart to upset, and the precise pot-plant to piss in. And sometimes, on quite nights, we can’t help but hope just a little bit… that someone tries to ban us again.
Click here to view the 2008 article: “All Aboard the Banned Wagon” (PDF)