Mulder implicates Vorster

Press, 27 March 1979, Page 8

Mulder implicates Vorster

NZPA-Reuter Cape Town The main victim so far of South Africa’s Information Department scandal, the forI mer Information Minister, [Connie Mulder, at the week--end spoke out for the first i time with a bombshell state- [ ment accusing President -John Vorster of acquiescing -in the secret projects at the -centre of the scandal. Dr Mulder, who was forced to resign from the -Cabinet and Parliament over I the scandal which has bej come known as “Mulder--gate” on Sunday broke his i silence to implicate Mr Vorster, the former Prime Minister of South Africa, and the present Finance Minister (Mr Owen Horwood). The main point in Dr Mulder’s statement was an allegation that Mr Vorster and Senator Horwood knew of the Government’s secret funding of the pro-Govern-ment newspaper, the “Citizen” long before they have admitted they did. Leaders of the Opposition Progressive Federal Party’ and New Republic Party’ are opening a petition demanding that a Parliamentary committee examine the President’s conduct with a view to having Parliament remove him from office.

But the ruling National Party outnumbers the oppo-

i sition by five to one in Parliament and the move as such has no chance of succeeding, although it will force a bitter row and may force a General Election.

Mr Vorster, in a statement last Thursday which the Opposition said was in itself a Constitutional breach, asserted that the first he knew of the Information Department’s secret funding of the “Citizen” was in August, 1977. Dr Mulder said on Sunday that Mr Vorster knew about it long before then and made no effort to stop the project going ahead. But in another statement on Sunday night, Mr Vorster said his earlier assertion was “a correct reflection of what took place and it is the truth.” He said the preliminary report last December of a judicial inquiry headed by Judge Rudolf Erasmus had concluded that Dr Mulder had carried on with the “Citizen” project without consulting Mr Vorster personally as to his real opinion.

Dr Mulder said that Mr Horwood was also involved in vetting the Information Department’s secret projects, despite his denials. The Prime Minister (Mr Pieter Botha), his Govern,

ment severely rocked by the scandal, said he would not comment on Dr Mulder’s bombshell statement until a judicial inquiry had reported on these aspects. The report is due by the end of the month. Mr Botha has said he would resign and call a new election if any member of his present Cabinet was found to have been involved in the scandal.

The P.F.P. leader, Colin Eglin, on Sunday night called on Mr Botha to do just that — immediately. Dr Mulder’s statement was “the last straw,” he said. “South Africans are now faced with the unedifying spectacle of the State President and a former Cabinet colleague engaged in public recriminations and attacks on each other’s integrity . . . Voters must have an opportunity of electing a new Government they can trust,” he said.

Dr Mulder said in his statement that he wished to state categorically that Dr Eschel Rhoodie (who was the Information Department’s top civil servant) reported regularly from time to time to three Ministers about information’s secret projects. “At certain of these occasions, publications were

shown to illustrate the work. At these occasions projects were sometimes evaluated and it was decided whether or not to proceed with them.

“The Prime Minister, the Minister of Finance, and myself were present, while General Hendrik van den Bergh (former State security chief) was also there on at least two occasions,” Dr Mulder said. Referring to the “Citizen” project. Dr Mulder said: “Everyone is agreed that Mr Vorster, with knowledge of the intended founding of the newspaper, forbade neither myself nor the officials of the department who were involved, from going ahead with it.”

Dr Mulder said that by issuing his statement he was not seeking revenge for his enforced retirement — which was ordered by Mr Botha — or protection from any further action. "I am sony that I now have to publish these facts in this way,” Dr Mulder said. “I really believe that there has been enough speculation now about the affair and that I, as the Minister concerned, owe it to the public to reveal the truth without regard to personalities,”