John Vorster

B. J. Vorster
Vorster in 1960
4thState President of South Africa
In office 10 October 1978 – 4 June 1979
Prime Minister	Pieter Willem Botha
Preceded by	Nicolaas Diederichs Marais Viljoen (acting)
Succeeded by	Marais Viljoen
7thPrime Minister of South Africa
In office 13 September 1966 – 2 October 1978
President	Charles R. Swart Jozua Naudé(acting) Jacobus Fouché Jan de Klerk(acting) Nicolaas Diederichs Marais Viljoen (acting)
Preceded by	Hendrik Verwoerd Eben Dönges(acting)
Succeeded by	Pieter Willem Botha
Minister of Police
In office 1 April 1966 – 9 August 1968
Prime Minister	Hendrik Verwoerd Himself
Preceded by	Office established Himself(as Minister of Justice)
Succeeded by	Lourens Muller
Minister of Justice
In office 8 October 1961 – 14 September 1966
Prime Minister	Hendrik Verwoerd
Preceded by	Frans Erasmus
Succeeded by	Petrus Cornelius Pelser
Personal details
Born	Balthazar Johannes Vorster (1915-12-13)13 December 1915 Jamestown,Cape Province,Union of South Africa
Died	10 September 1983(1983-09-10)(aged 67) Cape Town,Cape Province,South Africa
Political party	National Party
Spouse	Tini Vorster ​ (m.1941)​
Children	Elizabeth (Elsa) Vorster Willem Carel Vorster Pieter Andries Vorster
Alma mater	University of Stellenbosch

Balthazar Johannes"B. J."Vorster(Afrikaans pronunciation:[ˈbaltɑːzarjuəˈhanəsˈfɔrstər];also known asJohn Vorster;13 December 1915 – 10 September 1983) was a South African apartheid politician who served as theprime minister of South Africafrom 1966 to 1978 and thefourthstate president of South Africafrom 1978 to 1979. Known as B. J. Vorster during much of his career, he came to prefer the anglicized name John in the 1970s.

Vorster strongly adhered to his country's policy ofapartheid,overseeing (as Minister of Justice) theRivonia Trial,in whichNelson Mandelawas sentenced tolife imprisonmentfor sabotage, (as Prime Minister) theTerrorism Act,thecomplete abolition of non-white political representation,theSoweto Riotsand theSteve Bikocrisis. He conducted a more pragmatic foreign policy than his predecessors, in an effort to improve relations between thewhite minority governmentand South Africa's neighbours, particularly after the break-up of thePortuguese colonial empire.Shortly after the 1978Internal SettlementinRhodesia,in which he was instrumental, he was implicated in theMuldergate Scandal.He resigned the premiership in favour of the ceremonial state presidency, from which he was forced out as well eight months later.

Early life

Vorster was born in 1915 inJamestown,Cape Province,Union of South Africa,the fifteenth child of a successfulsheep farmer,Willem Carel Vorster and his wife, Elizabeth Sophia Vorster (née Wagenaar). He attended primary school there. After Vorster enteredStellenbosch University,he involved himself in student politics becoming the chairman of the debating society, deputy chairman of the student council and leader of the juniorNational Party.

In 1938, Vorster graduated to become a registrar (judge's clerk) to the judge president of theCape Provincial Divisionof theSupreme Court of South Africabut he did not remain in this post for long, setting up his first law practice inPort Elizabethand his second in theWitwatersrandtown ofBrakpan.

Career

Ossewabrandwag

From 1939, Vorster attracted attention by strongly opposing South Africa's intervention on the side of the Allies and their former foe theUnited Kingdom,inWorld War II.Many Nationalists enthusiastically hoped for a German victory.

Vorster dedicated himself to an anti-British, pro-Nazi organisation called theOssewabrandwag(Ox-wagon Sentinel), founded in 1938 in celebration of the centenary of theGreat Trek.Under the leadership ofJohannes Van Rensburg,theOssewabrandwagconducted many acts of sabotage against South Africa during World War II to limit its war effort. Vorster, who was interned for his activities, which included helping previously interned fugitives, claimed not to have participated in the acts of war attributed to the group.He described himself as anti-British, not pro-Nazi, and said his internment was for anti-British agitation.

Vorster rose rapidly through the ranks of theOssewabrandwagbecoming a general in its paramilitary wing.His involvement with this group led to his detention atKoffiefonteinin 1942.Following his release from custody in 1944, Vorster became active in theNational Party,which began implementing the policy ofapartheidin 1948. Although racial discrimination in favour of whites had long been a crucial fact of South African politics and society, formal restrictions were loosening and the National Party institutionalised racism in a new way and on a massive scale through its “apartheid” legislation.

House of Assembly

In 1953, Vorster was elected to theHouse of Assemblyrepresenting the seat of Nigel in theTransvaal.He was appointed as Deputy Minister in 1958.He was anMPduring the terms of prime ministersD.F. Malan,J.G. StrijdomandHendrik Verwoerd.Vorster's wartime anti-British activities came back to haunt him.Vorster answered his critics by saying that he had now "come to believe in" the parliamentary system.

A leader of the right wing of the National Party, he was appointed Minister of Justice in 1961 by prime minister Verwoerd, an outspoken mentor and idol of Vorster. He combined that with the Minister of Police and Prisons in 1966.

Upon Verwoerd's assassination in 1966, Vorster was elected by the National Party to succeed him, and continued Verwoerd's implementation of apartheid legislation, including the 1968 abolition of the last four parliamentary seats that had been reserved for white representatives ofColoured(mixed race) voters (realised in 1970). Despite this, Vorster's rule oversaw several other such proposed bills dropped, as well the repealing of legislation prohibiting multi-racial sports teams in order to allow for South Africa to compete at the1968 Summer Olympicsin Mexico. Despite Vorster's efforts, protests by numerous African nations meant that the IOC refused permission for South Africa's proposed team to compete.

As a personal figure, Vorster was described as "flesh and blood" byProgressiveMPHelen Suzmanin contrast to the "diabolical" and "frightening" Verwoerd. His supporters held him in great affection for his eccentricities. Examples of this were the occasion when he briefed the opposition in his private chambers, his allowing pictures of himself to be taken in often precarious situations and then to be distributed publicly as well as his welcoming of foreigners, in his words, to "the happiestpolice statein the world ". This new outlook in the leadership of South Africa was dubbed" billikheid "or" sweet reasonableness ".He alienated an extremist faction of his National Party when it accepted the presence ofMāoriplayers and spectators during the tour of theNew Zealand national rugby union teamin South Africa in 1970.

Vorster was more pragmatic than his predecessors when it came to foreign policy. He improved relations with other African nations, such as by the adoption of his policy of letting Black African diplomats live in white areas in South Africa. He unofficially supported, but refused officially to recognise, the neighbouring state ofRhodesia,whose predominantly white minority government hadunilaterally declared independence(UDI) from the UK in 1965. Vorster followed white public opinion in South Africa by supporting Rhodesia publicly, but was unwilling to alienate important political allies in the United States by extending diplomatic recognition to Rhodesia.

The collapse of Portuguese rule inAngolaandMozambiquein 1975 left South Africa and Rhodesia as the sole outposts ofwhite minority ruleon the continent: while Vorster was unwilling to make any concessions to his country's majority population, he soon realised that white rule would be untenable in a country where blacks outnumbered whites.

In September 1976, under pressure from US Secretary of StateHenry Kissinger,he pressuredIan Smith,theRhodesian Prime Minister,to accept in principle that white minority rule could not continue indefinitely. Smith and moderate black nationalist leaders signed theInternal Settlementin March 1978, and in June 1979, followingmultiracial elections,Rhodesia was reconstituted under black majority rule asZimbabwe Rhodesiawhich, in this form, also lacked any international recognition.

Information Scandal

Main article:Muldergate

After theSoweto Uprisingin 1976, as Prime Minister, Vorster encouraged the Department of Information to engage in clandestine activities in and outside South Africa. Vorster did not inform his cabinet of these activities and financed them through a secret defence account. When the auditor general made a critical report, a scandal broke out, ultimately leading to the resignation of Vorster. This scandal was colloquially known to some as "South African Watergate".

State President and retirement

Vorster resigned as Prime Minister in 1978, after twelve years in office. He was succeeded byP. W. Botha,a hardliner who nevertheless began the first reforms to moderate the apartheid system. Following his resignation as Prime Minister, Vorster was elected to the largely honorary position ofState President.His tenure in his new office, however, was short-lived. In what came to be known as theMuldergate Scandalso named after DrConnie Mulder,the Cabinet minister at its centre, Vorster was implicated in the use of a secret slush fund to establishThe Citizen,the only major English-language newspaper that was favourable to the National Party. A commission of inquiry concluded in mid-1979 that Vorster "knew everything" about the corruption and had tolerated it. He resigned from the state presidency in disgrace. In 1982, John Vorster supported theConservative PartyofAndries Treurnichtat its founding congress. He died in 1983, aged 67 years.

Legacy under apartheid

Using theGroup Areas Act,Stellenbosch Universitydispossessed coloured residents of centralStellenboschof their land in order to expand the university. They named the building built there after B.J. Vorster, an alumnus and chancellor of the university. It was renamed in the 1990s.

Johannesburg Central Police Stationwas formerly called John Vorster Square, and was the home of South Africa'sSpecial Branchduring the apartheid era.

Depiction on coins

He is depicted on the obverses of the followingcoins of the South African rand;

1982 1/2 Cent to 1 Rand.

Publication

• Vorster, Balthazar Johannes (1976). O. Geyser (ed.).Geredigeerde toesprake van die sewende Eerste Minister van Suid-Afrika: 1953-1974[The edited speeches of the seventh prime minister of South Africa: 1953-1974] (in Afrikaans). Bloemfontein: Instituut vir Eietydse Geskiedenis, UOVS.ISBN9780868860053.

External links

• B. J. Vorster: Selected speeches
• The Rise of the South African Reich – Chapter 6,Brian Bunting, 1969