Misplaced Pages

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69-642: The scandal broke in 1977 and implicated the Prime Minister, B. J. Vorster . Also centrally involved in "Project Annemarie" were Eschel Rhoodie , Secretary of Information; Connie Mulder , Minister of Information, and a rising star in the National Party ; and Hendrik van den Bergh , the Head of the Bureau for State Security . A series of internal investigations, inquiries, and media exposés culminated in

138-505: A joint operating agreement with the Post . On February 2, 1978, Allbritton sold the Star to Time Inc. for $ 20 million. Their flagship magazine, Time , was the arch-rival to Newsweek , which The Washington Post Company had owned since 1961. Time Inc.'s president, James R. Shepley , convinced Time 's board of directors that owning a daily newspaper in the national capital would bring

207-668: A country where blacks outnumbered whites. In September 1976, under pressure from US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger , he pressured Ian Smith , the Rhodesian Prime Minister , to accept in principle that white minority rule could not continue indefinitely. Smith and moderate black nationalist leaders signed the Internal Settlement in March 1978, and in June 1979, following multiracial elections , Rhodesia

276-783: A crucial fact of South African politics and society, formal restrictions were loosening and the National Party institutionalised racism in a new way and on a massive scale through its “apartheid” legislation. In 1953, Vorster was elected to the House of Assembly representing the seat of Nigel in the Transvaal . He was appointed as Deputy Minister in 1958. He was an MP during the terms of prime ministers D.F. Malan , J.G. Strijdom and Hendrik Verwoerd . Vorster's wartime anti-British activities came back to haunt him. Vorster answered his critics by saying that he had now "come to believe in"

345-523: A few strips — including Edwina Dumm's strips Alec the Great and Cap Stubbs and Tippie — it had inherited from the Adams Service; one successful strip the syndicate launched was Morrie Brickman 's The Small Society , which was published in over 300 papers, including 35 foreign publications. Otherwise, from about 1971 onward, the syndicate no longer distributed comic strips. In February 1978,

414-509: A unique sense of prestige and political access. The paper's labor unions agreed to work concessions that Shepley demanded. An effort to draw readers with localized special "zonal" metro news sections, however, did little to help circulation. The Star lacked the resources to produce the sort of ultra-local coverage zonal editions demanded and ended up running many of the same regional stories in all of its local sections. An economic downturn resulted in monthly losses of over $ 1 million. Overall,

483-715: A year after the Star went out of business. Writers who worked at the Star in its last days included Michael Isikoff , Howard Kurtz , Fred Hiatt , Jane Mayer , Chris Hanson, Jeremiah O'Leary , Chuck Conconi, Crispin Sartwell , Maureen Dowd , novelist Randy Sue Coburn, Michael DeMond Davis , Lance Gay, Jules Witcover , Jack Germond , Judy Bachrach, Lyle Denniston , Fred Barnes , Gloria Borger , Kate Sylvester, and Mary McGrory . The paper's staff also included editorial cartoonist Pat Oliphant from 1976 to 1981. The Washington Star Syndicate operated from 1965 to 1979. The newspaper had sporadically syndicated material over

552-685: Is estimated to have cost the state R32 million or $ 37 million by the time Luyt pulled out in 1977. On some views, the eventual scandal "discredited" the Citizen , which is still operational, for some years afterward. In 1974, the Project also attempted to facilitate the sale of the American Washington Star , with similar plans to sway its editorial policy toward a favourable view of the South African government. The intention

621-666: The Washington Star-News and the Washington Evening Star , was a daily afternoon newspaper published in Washington, D.C. , between 1852 and 1981. The Sunday edition was known as the Sunday Star . The paper was renamed several times before becoming Washington Star by the late 1970s. For most of the time it was publishing, The Washington Star was the city's newspaper of record and

690-506: The Washington Times-Herald , in 1954 and steadily drew readers and advertisers away from the falling Star . By the 1960s, the Post was Washington's leading newspaper. In 1972, the Star purchased and absorbed one of Washington's few remaining competing newspapers, The Washington Daily News . For a short period of time after the merger, both "The Evening Star" and "The Washington Daily News" mastheads appeared on

759-488: The Citizen had been financed with state funds, thereby lying to Parliament. At the end of January 1978, amid widely circulated rumours inflamed by media reports, Parliament's Committee on Public Accounts, chaired by Hennie van der Walt , initiated an inquiry. The committee's final report to Parliament in July 1978 found that there had been financial irregularities and that a more extensive inquiry should be established. Rhoodie

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828-506: The Citizen project in August 1977, during the state audit, and that it had been discussed in his Cabinet only once, shortly before his resignation as Prime Minister. In April 1979, Mulder was expelled from the National Party for refusing to accept Erasmus's findings. However, Erasmus ultimately came to accept Mulder's account of Vorster's involvement, concluding that Vorster had been fully informed ("knew everything") about, and had covered up,

897-493: The Star lost some $ 85 million following the acquisition before Time's board decided to give up. On August 7, 1981, after 128 years, The Washington Star ceased publication. In the bankruptcy sale, the Post purchased the land and buildings owned by the Star , including its printing presses. Many of the people who worked for the Star went to work for the newly formed Washington Times , which began operations in May 1982, almost

966-708: The Star purchased the M. A. Leese Radio Corporation and acquired Washington's oldest radio station , WMAL , in the process. Renamed the Evening Star Broadcasting Company, the 1938 acquisition would figure later in the 1981 demise of the newspaper. The Star ' s influence and circulation peaked in the 1950s; it constructed a new printing plant in Southeast Washington capable of printing millions of copies, but found itself unable to cope with changing times. Nearly all top editorial and business staff jobs were held by members of

1035-650: The Star . Berryman was most famous for his 1902 cartoon of President Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt , "Drawing the Line in Mississippi," which spurred the creation of the teddy bear . During his career, Berryman drew thousands of cartoons commenting on American Presidents and politics. Presidential figures included former Presidents Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Harry S. Truman. The cartoons satirized both Democrats and Republicans and covered topics such as drought, farm relief, and food prices ; representation of

1104-647: The State Presidency , a largely ceremonial position similar to that of Governor-General of South Africa . Botha, his Minister of Defence, became Prime Minister. In late September, the report of the Reynders inquiry was leaked in a nationalist newspaper in Mulder's constituency. The report was remarkably brief and found no irregularities, clearing Mulder and his department. The leak came only days before an internal National Party leadership election in which Mulder

1173-740: The Witwatersrand town of Brakpan . From 1939, Vorster attracted attention by strongly opposing South Africa's intervention on the side of the Allies and their former foe the United Kingdom , in World War II . Many Nationalists enthusiastically hoped for a German victory. Vorster dedicated himself to an anti-British, pro-Nazi organisation called the Ossewabrandwag ( Ox-wagon Sentinel ), founded in 1938 in celebration of

1242-656: The complete abolition of non-white political representation , the Soweto Riots and the Steve Biko crisis. He conducted a more pragmatic foreign policy than his predecessors, in an effort to improve relations between the white minority government and South Africa's neighbours, particularly after the break-up of the Portuguese colonial empire . Shortly after the 1978 Internal Settlement in Rhodesia , in which he

1311-539: The fourth state president of South Africa from 1978 to 1979. Known as B. J. Vorster during much of his career, he came to prefer the anglicized name John in the 1970s. Vorster strongly adhered to his country's policy of apartheid , overseeing (as Minister of Justice) the Rivonia Trial , in which Nelson Mandela was sentenced to life imprisonment for sabotage, (as Prime Minister) the Terrorism Act ,

1380-528: The 1968 abolition of the last four parliamentary seats that had been reserved for white representatives of Coloured (mixed race) voters (realised in 1970). Despite this, Vorster's rule oversaw several other such proposed bills dropped, as well the repealing of legislation prohibiting multi-racial sports teams in order to allow for South Africa to compete at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico. Despite Vorster's efforts, protests by numerous African nations meant that

1449-504: The American Department of Justice for acting as the agent of a foreign nation. [T]he Department of Information has, for years, been asked by the government to undertake sensitive and even highly secret operations as counteraction to the propaganda war being waged against South Africa. – Secretary of Information Eschel Rhoodie in May 1978 In mid-1977, the department was audited by the state Auditor-General , led by

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1518-557: The Department of Information's head of "dirty tricks," on some accounts. Under him, the department began to pursue a concerted communications and propaganda programme. By early 1973, the department had allegedly been involved in the following, funded partly by loans from BOSS: From December 1973, these initiatives were expanded and formalised. The department's new approach was to be "a no-holds-barred secret campaign of psychological warfare against foreign opinion." Vorster later said that

1587-615: The District of Columbia in Congress; labor strikes and legislation; campaigning and elections; political patronage; European coronations; the America's Cup ; and the atomic bomb. Berryman's career continued at the Star until he collapsed on the lobby floor one morning in 1949 and died shortly after of a heart ailment. The next major change to the newspaper came in 1938, when the three owning families diversified their interests. On May 1,

1656-568: The FCC considered it to be an ownership change, and stripped the WMAL stations of their grandfathered protection. Allbritton sold off all of the Star Company's radio stations in 1977, and channel 7 was renamed WJLA-TV . On October 1, 1975, press operators at the Post went on strike , severely damaging all printing presses before leaving the building. Allbritton would not assist Katharine Graham ,

1725-643: The IOC refused permission for South Africa's proposed team to compete. As a personal figure, Vorster was described as "flesh and blood" by Progressive MP Helen Suzman in contrast to the "diabolical" and "frightening" Verwoerd. His supporters held him in great affection for his eccentricities. Examples of this were the occasion when he briefed the opposition in his private chambers, his allowing pictures of himself to be taken in often precarious situations and then to be distributed publicly as well as his welcoming of foreigners, in his words, to "the happiest police state in

1794-543: The Information Scandal, though its proceedings were kept secret, ostensibly for national security reasons. It released its first report in an emergency session of Parliament in December 1978 and its second on 4 June 1979. Rhoodie, Mulder, and van den Bergh all claimed that Vorster had been closely involved in the Project. After the publication of the first report, which was sympathetic to Vorster, Mulder went to

1863-721: The Mostert Commission. In the following weeks, Mulder resigned from the Cabinet and then from his chairmanship of the National Party's Transvaal branch. The Commission of Inquiry into Alleged Irregularities in the Former Department of Information, better known as the Erasmus Commission, was appointed in November 1978 under Justice Rudolph Erasmus . It was the most extensive of the inquiries into

1932-511: The Project, but the involvement of the Department of Defence was necessary to avoid the perception of inflation in BOSS's own budget. The programme, named Project Annemarie, after Rhoodie's daughter, mainly targeted Western countries, and involved 180 initiatives at an estimated cost of between R65 million and R85 million, or between $ 73 million and $ 76 million, over five years. Participants said it included: The Project had initially planned to arrange

2001-578: The United Kingdom, the United States, and France. In an interview with the BBC , he told David Dimbleby that he was a scapegoat and that senior officials, including the Prime Minister, had authorised the projects. In July 1979, he was extradited from France to South Africa to face fraud and theft charges. He was found guilty on five counts and sentenced to six years' imprisonment, but the verdict

2070-826: The Washington Star Syndicate was sold (along with its parent company) to Time Inc. In May 1979, the Universal Press Syndicate acquired the Star Syndicate from the remaining assets of the Washington Star Company. As a result of this merger, beginning in June 1979, popular existing Universal Press strips like Doonesbury , Cathy , and Tank McNamara left the pages of The Washington Post and began appearing in The Washington Star . (When

2139-514: The adoption of his policy of letting Black African diplomats live in white areas in South Africa. He unofficially supported, but refused officially to recognise, the neighbouring state of Rhodesia , whose predominantly white minority government had unilaterally declared independence (UDI) from the UK in 1965. Vorster followed white public opinion in South Africa by supporting Rhodesia publicly, but

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2208-440: The auditor general made a critical report, a scandal broke out, ultimately leading to the resignation of Vorster. This scandal was colloquially known to some as "South African Watergate". Vorster resigned as Prime Minister in 1978, after twelve years in office. He was succeeded by P. W. Botha , a hardliner who nevertheless began the first reforms to moderate the apartheid system. Following his resignation as Prime Minister, Vorster

2277-467: The building built there after B.J. Vorster, an alumnus and chancellor of the university. It was renamed in the 1990s. Johannesburg Central Police Station was formerly called John Vorster Square, and was the home of South Africa's Special Branch during the apartheid era. He is depicted on the obverses of the following coins of the South African rand ; 1982 1/2 Cent to 1 Rand. The Washington Star The Washington Star , previously known as

2346-578: The centenary of the Great Trek . Under the leadership of Johannes Van Rensburg , the Ossewabrandwag conducted many acts of sabotage against South Africa during World War II to limit its war effort. Vorster, who was interned for his activities, which included helping previously interned fugitives, claimed not to have participated in the acts of war attributed to the group. He described himself as anti-British, not pro-Nazi, and said his internment

2415-602: The chairman of the debating society, deputy chairman of the student council and leader of the junior National Party . In 1938, Vorster graduated to become a registrar (judge's clerk) to the judge president of the Cape Provincial Division of the Supreme Court of South Africa but he did not remain in this post for long, setting up his first law practice in Port Elizabeth and his second in

2484-533: The corruption and had tolerated it. He resigned from the state presidency in disgrace. In 1982, John Vorster supported the Conservative Party of Andries Treurnicht at its founding congress. He died in 1983, aged 67 years. Using the Group Areas Act , Stellenbosch University dispossessed coloured residents of central Stellenbosch of their land in order to expand the university. They named

2553-430: The department's involvement with the Citizen and other projects. While presenting the second Erasmus report to Parliament in June 1979, Botha announced that Vorster had resigned as State President in disgrace. Botha was absolved of any wrongdoing, on the basis that he had not known how the slush fund was used and so had not known about the irregularities. Mulder, Rhoodie and van den Bergh were held primarily responsible for

2622-493: The former Secretary of Information, Gerald Barrie . Barrie reported to Vorster about financial irregularities and the mismanagement of state funds at the department. Over the next two years, revelations about the department's activities and secret propaganda campaign emerged through a series of official inquiries and in the press. The Rand Daily Mail under Allister Sparks and the Sunday Express under Rex Gibson broke

2691-573: The front page. The paper soon was retitled "Washington Star News" and finally, "The Washington Star" by the late 1970s. In 1973, the Star was targeted for clandestine purchase by interests close to the South African Apartheid government in its propaganda war, in what became known as the Muldergate Scandal . The Star , whose editorial policy had always been conservative, was seen as favorable to South Africa at

2760-550: The government to establish a pro-South African news magazine, To the Point , published internationally and supported financially by the state and by its Dutch publisher. The project was authorised by Vorster; by the Minister of Information, Connie Mulder ; and by Hendrik van den Bergh of the Bureau for State Security (BOSS), which also helped with its funding. In September 1972, Mulder appointed Rhoodie Secretary of Information –

2829-492: The international arena, which was the result of an array of domestic and international factors. Particular concerns were the intensification of sports boycotts and the intensification of calls, especially by the British Anti-Apartheid Movement , for economic sanctions and boycotts. Diplomatic press officer Eschel Rhoodie had written a book on South Africa's global positioning. In 1971 he helped

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2898-564: The irregularities, with Erasmus also claiming that Rhoodie and van den Bergh had attempted to manipulate the September 1978 National Party election to have Mulder appointed Vorster's successor. Erasmus did not reveal what other Project Annemarie initiatives had been, and he recommended that dozens of them should continue to operate. Rhoodie testified at the Erasmus Commission but fled the country immediately afterwards, spending time in Ecuador,

2967-498: The longtime home to columnist Mary McGrory and cartoonist Clifford K. Berryman . On August 7, 1981, after 128 years, The Washington Star ceased publication and filed for bankruptcy . In the bankruptcy sale, The Washington Post purchased the land and buildings owned by The Washington Star , including its printing presses. The Washington Star was founded on December 16, 1852, by Captain Joseph Borrows Tate. It

3036-408: The most prestigious bank in the capital, planned to use profits from WMAL-AM-FM-TV to shore up the newspaper's finances. The Federal Communications Commission stymied him with rules on media cross-ownership , however. The FCC had recently banned common ownership of newspapers and broadcast outlets, while grandfathering existing clusters. Due to the manner in which Allbritton's takeover was structured,

3105-506: The owner of the Post , in any way, refusing to print his rival's papers on the Star' s presses, since that likely would have caused the Star to be struck by the press operators as well. Allbritton also had major disagreements with editor Jim Bellows over editorial policy; Bellows left the Star for the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner . Unable to make the Star profitable, Allbritton explored other options, including

3174-535: The owning families, including a Kauffmann general manager who had gained a reputation for anti-Semitism , driving away advertisers. Suburbanization and competition with television news were other factors for declining circulation and staffing; Carl Bernstein reflected in his 2021 memoir that the Star "couldn't get the paper out to the newer postwar suburbs until late in the afternoon" because "delivery trucks got tied up in rush hour traffic." Meanwhile, The Washington Post acquired and merged with its morning rival,

3243-501: The paper by capitalizing on reporting of the American Civil War , among other things. In 1867, a three-man consortium of Crosby Stuart Noyes , Samuel H. Kauffmann and George W. Adams acquired the paper, with each of the investors putting up $ 33,333.33. The Noyes-Kauffmann-Adams interests would own the paper for the next four generations. In 1907, subsequent Pulitzer Prize winning cartoonist Clifford K. Berryman joined

3312-433: The parliamentary system. A leader of the right wing of the National Party, he was appointed Minister of Justice in 1961 by prime minister Verwoerd, an outspoken mentor and idol of Vorster. He combined that with the Minister of Police and Prisons in 1966. Upon Verwoerd's assassination in 1966, Vorster was elected by the National Party to succeed him, and continued Verwoerd's implementation of apartheid legislation, including

3381-490: The press to double down on these allegations: he said that van den Bergh had informed Vorster of the proposal to launch the Citizen in December 1975, and that in December 1976 Vorster had been consulted on the details of the scheme. He also said that Vorster was one of three Cabinet members – the others being Defence Minister Botha and Finance Minister Horwood – who had attended meetings on Project Annemarie from 1974 onward. Vorster continued to maintain that he had first learnt of

3450-489: The project. Despite efforts by Botha to block him, Mostert decided in the public interest to release some of his findings on 2 November 1978. He announced that the Department of Information had misappropriated at least $ 15 million in public funds, including to finance the Citizen . On 3 November, the Rand Daily Mail ran the story under a famous banner headline reading "It's all true." Three days later, Botha suspended

3519-424: The purpose was "to assist in a delicate and unconventional way in combating the total onslaught against South Africa," and "to withstand the subversion of our country's good image and stability." A slush fund was set up in collaboration with the Minister of Defence P. W. Botha – money was channelled to the Department of Information through the secret Defence Special Account. From April 1974, BOSS acted as banker for

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3588-479: The resignation in disgrace of all four men. In fact, during the course of the scandal, Vorster resigned twice, first from the Prime Ministership and then from the State Presidency . P. W. Botha , Vorster's successor as Prime Minister, was Minister of Defence throughout Project Annemarie's lifespan and was implicated in facilitating the slush fund, but he was ultimately cleared of all wrongdoing. Rhoodie

3657-671: The sale of the Rand Daily Mail , the most staunchly anti-apartheid national newspaper of the era, to Louis Luyt , a conservative business tycoon who would steer the paper in a more sympathetic editorial direction. When shareholders refused to sell to Luyt, the Project decided to establish an entirely new pro-government, but ostensibly independent, English-language newspaper. The Citizen was founded in 1976, at substantial expense, under Luyt, and recruited several popular conservative journalists. It lost significant amounts of money, and an overdraft facility had to be arranged. The Citizen

3726-467: The state audit and other sources, that Project Annemarie funds had been transferred to private bank accounts and used to fund extravagant trips abroad by Project officials. Deceit by participants became a prominent issue in 1978, when attention turned to the financing of the Citizen . In this regard, Mulder faced particular public censure – in May 1978, responding to a parliamentary question from opposition politician Japie Basson , he had denied outright that

3795-403: The story and were particularly active in investigating it. At least in conservative society and within the ruling National Party , the scandal was less about the fact of a state propaganda campaign than about the mismanagement of state funds, appropriated without the knowledge of Parliament , and an apparent cover-up by senior government officials and elected representatives. It emerged, through

3864-513: The time. In 1974, pro-apartheid Michigan newspaper publisher John P. McGoff attempted to purchase The Washington Star for $ 25 million, but he and his family received death threats, and the sale did not go through. In early 1975, the Noyes-Kauffmann-Adams group sold its interests in the paper to Joe Allbritton , a Texas multimillionaire who was known as a corporate turnaround artist. Allbritton, who also owned Riggs Bank , then

3933-525: The world". This new outlook in the leadership of South Africa was dubbed "billikheid" or "sweet reasonableness". He alienated an extremist faction of his National Party when it accepted the presence of Māori players and spectators during the tour of the New Zealand national rugby union team in South Africa in 1970. Vorster was more pragmatic than his predecessors when it came to foreign policy. He improved relations with other African nations, such as by

4002-569: The years — for instance, Gibson "Gib" Crockett, a Washington Star editorial cartoonist, was syndicated from 1947 to 1967 — but didn't become official until May 1965, when it purchased the remaining comic strips , columns , and features of the George Matthew Adams Service (Adams had died in 1962). The Washington Star Syndicate distributed the columns of James Beard , William F. Buckley Jr. , James J. Kilpatrick , and Mary McGrory , among others. It began by syndicating

4071-501: Was elected to the largely honorary position of State President . His tenure in his new office, however, was short-lived. In what came to be known as the Muldergate Scandal so named after Dr Connie Mulder , the Cabinet minister at its centre, Vorster was implicated in the use of a secret slush fund to establish The Citizen , the only major English-language newspaper that was favourable to the National Party. A commission of inquiry concluded in mid-1979 that Vorster "knew everything" about

4140-441: Was for anti-British agitation. Vorster rose rapidly through the ranks of the Ossewabrandwag becoming a general in its paramilitary wing. His involvement with this group led to his detention at Koffiefontein in 1942. Following his release from custody in 1944, Vorster became active in the National Party , which began implementing the policy of apartheid in 1948. Although racial discrimination in favour of whites had long been

4209-531: Was forced to resign, and Vorster dissolved the Department of Information, replacing it with the Bureau of National and International Communication. Van den Bergh also resigned and BOSS was restructured. Also in July 1978, Vorster appointed BOSS to conduct a special internal investigation into financial irregularities in the use of the secret accounts. The BOSS auditor was Loot Reynders . On 20 September, Vorster resigned as Prime Minister, citing ill health, and took up

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4278-597: Was instrumental, he was implicated in the Muldergate Scandal . He resigned the premiership in favour of the ceremonial state presidency, from which he was forced out as well eight months later. Vorster was born in 1915 in Jamestown , Cape Province , Union of South Africa , the fifteenth child of a successful sheep farmer , Willem Carel Vorster and his wife, Elizabeth Sophia Vorster (née Wagenaar). He attended primary school there. After Vorster entered Stellenbosch University , he involved himself in student politics becoming

4347-412: Was originally headquartered on "Newspaper Row" on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C. Tate initially named the paper The Daily Evening Star . In 1853, Texas surveyor and newspaper entrepreneur William Douglas Wallach purchased the paper, and in 1854 shortened the name to The Evening Star and introduced The Sunday Star edition. As the sole owner of the paper for 14 years, Wallach built up

4416-453: Was overturned on appeal in 1980. Rhoodie continued to maintain that he was innocent and had been the victim of a political "vendetta." John Vorster Balthazar Johannes " B. J. " Vorster ( Afrikaans pronunciation: [ˈbaltɑːzar juəˈhanəs ˈfɔrstər] ; 13 December 1915 – 10 September 1983), better known as John Vorster , was a South African politician who served as the prime minister of South Africa from 1966 to 1978 and

4485-435: Was probably to use the newspaper to influence American foreign policy on South Africa and to attack liberal Democrats . Luyt's counterpart in this unsuccessful bid was right-wing media magnate John P. McGoff , who was provided $ 11.3 million in Project funds with which to purchase the Star . McGoff went on to use part of the funds to purchase an interest in the Sacramento Union , and was ultimately investigated and charged by

4554-511: Was prosecuted for fraud and theft, and one other participant, American media magnate John P. McGoff , also faced criminal charges related to the scandal. In the early 1970s, public perceptions of the South African government, arising from apartheid and concomitant brutalities, were felt to endanger its reputation abroad, and thus to endanger important trade and financial links. Sectors of the South African state, and Prime Minister B. J. Vorster , worried about South Africa's increasing isolation in

4623-414: Was reconstituted under black majority rule as Zimbabwe Rhodesia which, in this form, also lacked any international recognition. After the Soweto Uprising in 1976, as Prime Minister, Vorster encouraged the Department of Information to engage in clandestine activities in and outside South Africa. Vorster did not inform his cabinet of these activities and financed them through a secret defence account. When

4692-668: Was slated to compete – he had previously held substantial political power as the Party's apparent "crown prince." However, despite Reynders's favourable report, Mulder lost the leadership election to Botha. I have no pangs of conscience about the entire matter because everything I have done I did in the conviction that I was serving my country, South Africa, in the best way. – Minister Connie Mulder , upon his resignation from Cabinet Finance Minister Owen Horwood appointed Justice Anton Mostert to carry out an inquiry into foreign exchange control violations in particular. In his testimony, Luyt implicated Vorster, Mulder, and van den Bergh in

4761-433: Was unwilling to alienate important political allies in the United States by extending diplomatic recognition to Rhodesia. The collapse of Portuguese rule in Angola and Mozambique in 1975 left South Africa and Rhodesia as the sole outposts of white minority rule on the continent: while Vorster was unwilling to make any concessions to his country's majority population, he soon realised that white rule would be untenable in

#21978