No liberalising, says Vorster

Press, 15 March 1980, Page 8

No liberalising, says Vorster

NZPA-Reuter Bloemfontein South Africa’s former! President and Prime Minis-j ter, Mr John Vorster, has re-, entered the active political, arena with a sweeping at-; tack on attempts at reform; by his successor, Mr Pieter Botha, the Prime Minister. In a speech to the Afrika-. ner Club in Bloemfontein Mr Vorster flatly rejected allowing blacks to become citizens, sharing power among various races, and other suggestions towards liberalising South Africa’s apartheid policies. “Separate development is the salvation of South Africa, and anyone who says otherwise is no friend of South Africa, the Afrikaner, or the white man,’’ said Mr Vorster, forced to resign one year ago after being implicated in an Information Ministry scandal. “People could not think multi-nationally and live multi-racially,” said Mr Vorster. His speech came two days after a controversy over Mr Botha’s reform policies, which had threatened to

split the ruling National Party, had apparently abated. He rejected arguments that South Africa would follow in Rhodesia’s footsteps if liberalisation did not occur. “I say no,” Mr Vorster said. “South Africa can only become a Rhodesia if we make it one.”