Muldergate

The Muldergate scandal, also known as the Information Scandal, was a South African political scandal involving the Department of Information.[1]

South African Prime Minister B. J. Vorster, Dr. Connie Mulder (Minister of Information), General Hendrik van den Bergh (Head of the Bureau of State Security) and Dr. Eschel Rhoodie (Secretary of the Department of Information) were implicated in plans to use government resources to fight a propaganda war for the then apartheid government. In 1973 John Vorster had agreed to Mulder's plan to shift about 64 million rand from the defence budget to undertake a series of propaganda projects. Plans included bribes of international news agencies and the purchase of the Washington Star newspaper.

Vorster was also implicated in the use of a secret slush fund to establish The 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 presidency in disgrace.

References
  1. "The Information Scandal". South African History Online. Retrieved 2008-01-12.

Bibliography
  • Rees, M and Day, C. (1989) Muldergate: The story of the info scandal, Macmillan: Johannesburg.


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