Another Vorster rebuff for Mondale

Press, 24 May 1977, Page 8

Another Vorster rebuff for Mondale

NZPA-Reuter Geneva The South African Prime Minister (Mr John Vorster), in a further rebuff to the American Vice-President (Mr Waiter Mondale), has said that United States pressure to force change in South Africa is unlikely to succeed. Speaking to reporters in Geneva the South African leader said that his country was strong enough to stand on its own and anyone who thought otherwise was making a mistake. The Vienna meeting ended in an impasse when the South African Prime Minister refused to accept United States views that a change in the country’s racial system was as important as the establishment of black-majority rule in Namibia (South-West Africa) and Rhodesia. Asked if a tougher United States policy towards South Africa was likely to backfire, Mr Vorster said: “It is unlikely to succeed.” Mr Vorster said that his talks with Mr Mondale “will definitely make South Africa more determined than ever in future to counter with all means at its disposal Marxist imperialism in Africa and especialiy southern Africa.”

Mr Mondale, in London to brief British leaders on his Vienna talks, said yesterday that he hoped progress was still possible in southern Africa despite the impasse at that meeting. “It is my hope, it is an uneducated one, but it is my hope that progress may be possible,” he said in a brief question-and-answer session.