S.A. Cabinet Reshuffled

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31755, 12 August 1968, Page 13

S. A. Cabinet Reshuffled

(N .Z.P. A.-Reuter—Copyright) PRETORIA, Aug. 11.

The Prime Minister of South Africa (Mr John Vorster) has entrenched his own authority and the power of the outward-looking faction of the Government with Friday’s sweeping reshuffle of Cabinet posts.

By dropping the abrasive arch-conservative Health Minister, Dr Albert Hertzog, and a few other ageing men, Mr Vorster has reshaped a Cabinet of relatively young men dedicated to carrying through his new-look policy. One of the main components of this policy, which has come under heavy fire from the Hertzog group, is a broadening of South Africa’s interest and involvement in the outside world, notably with Black African countries prepared to be friends.

The Prime Minister has now stamped his own image and ideas very clearly on the Cabinet, bringing to higher rank men he is confident will go along the revolutionary policy road with him. The ousting of Dr Hertzog from the Cabinet was the most significant of the changes announced by the Prime Minister—a reshuffle that amounted to an unloading of old guards inherited from the Verwoerd era.

Dr Hertzog, 69-year-old grey-bearded son of one of Afrikaaner South Africa’s greatest heroes General Barry Hertzog was the spokesman in the Cabinet for the conservative faction in Nationalist Party politics known to be bitterly opposed to the Vorster line on international involvement.

Dr Hertzog achieved local notoriety through his violent opposition to television in South Africa when he was Post and Telegraph Minister, a portfolio he was stripped of earlier this year. The present incumbent at

the Post and Telegraph Ministry, Mr Marthinus van Rensberg, is also said to be an anti-television man.

Taking over Dr Hertzog’s job now is 44-year-old Dr Carel de Wet, the former Ambassador in London, who adds this to his Mines and Planning portfolio. Other resignations from the Cabinet have ostensibly been for health reasons, which may in some cases be a polite way of saying that their performances have not met Mr Vorster’s testing demands. But the four new men who come in—dropping the average age of the Cabinet to 53 —are regarded as good Vorster men who reject the policies of the conservative “Verkramptes” who would have South Africa withdraw into political isolation and off the open ground where it is more vulnerable to the attacks and criticism of its enemies.

The resignation of the Interior Minister, Mr Pieter le Roux, aged 63. who was a Verwoerd appointee, was ex* pected, for Mr Vorster was

said to be dissatisfied with his performance. Into his place goes Mr Lourens Muller, former Deputy Minister of Finance, Police and Economic Affairs. Other heads to roll were those of Mr Willem Maree (Public Works, Social Welfare and Pensions), and Mr Alf Trollip, one of the two English-speaking members of the Cabinet (Immigration and Indian Affairs).

Their posts will be filled by Dr Connie Mulder, who becomes Minister for Information, Social Welfare, Pensions and Immigration, and Mr Blaar Coetzee, a former deputy minister, who now takes over the portfolios of Community Development and Public Works. '

Dr Mulder will also take over Mr Trollip’s Immigration portfolio, and lesser departments will be assigned to ministers already in the Cabinet.

The fourth man to get a new job is Mr Stephanus Botha, who becomes Minister of Water Affairs and Forestry.