Vorster Quits

A final report on Muldergate

" 'They say you are not telling the truth. I say, John, you know it is so. And you know that I know it is so. And you know that Connie Mulder knows it is so.' He shrugged and said, 'Yes, it is so.' And I said, 'But John, it can't go on like that. The thing will destroy you.' "

The "John" in that conversation was Balthazar Johannes Vorster, 63, Prime Minister of South Africa for twelve years and its President for the past nine months. The speaker was General Hendrik Van den Bergh, former head of the Bureau of State Security (BOSS); his testimony is included in the third and unsparing final report of a commission appointed to investigate corruption and legal irregularities in the government of John Vorster, who in 1977 led his National Party to the greatest electoral victory in its history.

Last week, after the release of the latest report on South Africa's "Muldergate" scandal, Vorster abruptly resigned as his country's head of state, his long political career ending in disgrace. Vorster's last official act as President was to receive the report that described his humiliation and led directly to his resignation.

The most important finding of the commission, headed by Supreme Court Justice Rudolph Erasmus, was that Vorster was fully aware of a covert operation by his former Minister of Information, Cornelius Mulder, to spend tens of millions of dollars in an illegal and secret effort to influence the news media. Retracting its own preliminary report that had exonerated Vorster, the commission concluded that he had lied in sworn testimony concerning his role in the whole affair. One witness testified that he had once asked Vorster whether the government itself was being blackmailed by Eschel Rhoodie, one of Mulder's key aides. "A thousand percent," Vorster is said to have replied. "He holds my ministers' political life in the hollow of his hand."

The Erasmus commission also provided a fascinating summary of what happened to the Muldergate millions. The commission charged that some $500,000 kept bobbing up in various bank accounts belonging to Rhoodie and two of his brothers; Rhoodie's salary as a senior civil servant never exceeded $1,350 a month. The commission also declared that $19 million in public funds went to L. Van Zyl Alberts, the publisher of a newspaper and a magazine that were, in reality, secretly funded government publications; the report implies that the publisher's use of the money points "to theft and fraud." Recounting previous charges that $10 million in government funds went to Michigan Publisher John McGoff in an unsuccessful attempt to take over the Washington Star in 1974, the commission charged that the South African government had never been able to account for $6.3 million of that sum. McGoff insisted that he had no South African backing in any of his business ventures.

The Muldergate case was a triumph for the country's English-language press, particularly the Rand Daily Mail, which had led the way in pursuing the widening scandal. Unfortunately, any celebrating by the newspapers may prove shortlived. The government of Vorster's successor, Prime Minister P.W. Botha, pressed ahead last week with legislation that would drastically limit the power of the press to investigate clandestine government operations. If Botha and his colleagues have their way, any future Muldergates could be conducted safely out of public view.

President Carter, as expected, announced last week that he would not lift economic sanctions against the country that now calls itself Zimbabwe Rhodesia.

To do so at present, Carter said, would "seriously damage" the international relations of the U.S. The President acknowledged that pro-Rhodesian sentiment is running strong in the Senate, but vowed to do "everything I can, within my power," to prevent Congress from lifting sanctions on its own.

Carter conceded that Rhodesia had made some progress toward genuine majority rule by holding elections that resulted in the installation of the black-led government of Prime Minister Abel Muzorewa. But the President is convinced that the U.S. should move slowly on the Rhodesian issue, maintaining its ties with black Africa while pressing the Rhodesians for additional political reforms. In Salisbury, Muzorewa, who is a Methodist bishop, attacked Carter's statements as "an inhuman decision by a committed Christian." -

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