Government of B. J. Vorster

Balthazar Johannes Vorster was born in 1915 at  Uitenhage. He was the 13th son of a wealthy sheep farmer. He had grown up in a strict Calvinist home and once told a reporter he read a chapter of the Bible every night ”no matter what or where I am.”

He studie law in Stellenbosh university. There gained attention as leader of the Afrikaner nationalist wing. After he was graduated from Stellenbosch University with a law degree in 1938, Mr. Vorster worked for the judge- president of Cape Province for a year, then established his own law practice.

He helped organize the Ossewabrandwag a pro nazi organzation who despized Great Britain and western Democracies . In 1942 he was held for three months without trial on suspicion of undermining the South African war effort. He was then confined for 17 months to an internment camp and at one point, he staged a hunger strike.  When asked what he believed he said  ”You can call it the antidemocratic system or dictatorship if you wish. In Italy it is called Fascism, in Germany National Socialism, and in South Africa Christian Socialism”

This phase of his life came to harm him in the future when he was in parliament and accused several times of being Nazi. Vorster stated that they were things of the past and he already believed in the parliamentary system.

After II world war, he tried to enter politics but was rejected by the National Party  but later he joined parliament for the national party in 1953 and  supported the rise to power of Hendrik Verwoerd in 1966. Verwoerd admnistration appointed Vorster deputy for science education, arts and social welfare.  After Hendrik Verwoerd decide to have a more authoritative and firm policy  against the black manifestations put Vorster as minister of justice, prisons and police in 1960.

The government continued its policy of apartheid. In  1968 abolished four seats in parliament were reserved for whites who represented the coloreds. Still, . He did much to remove hated symbols of the separatist policy and some of the grosser practices of racial discrimination.

He gave some freedom to blacks,  number of first-class restaurants and hotels were opened to blacks  and also a number of libraries, theaters and museums.

Its role in foreign affairs was highly praised. After seeing the fall of the Portuguese empire in Southern  Africa, one of the few allies of South Africa, immediately proposed aliances with  African anti-communists and conservatives parties, he tried to  improve relations with other African countries by adopting such a measures  like allowing  black african diplomates live in areas of the whites in South Africa.  Worked with the U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kssinger to allow the white regime of Ian Smith in Rhodesia partake power with black African leaders.

His administration was also marked by sending forces to Angola to fight MPLA to prevent Angola stay under Soviet influence.

His time as prime minister of South Africa, was marked by a scandal in which he was implicated – The  Muldergate scandal. In 1973 John Vorster agreed to the plan of the  information minister Connie Mulder to shift 64 million rand of government resources  to fight anti apartheid propaganda in international media.  This plan consisted mainly of bribes in media and purchase the washington post.

After leaving the government he was President of South Africa, a position he held for only a few months after the muldergate scandal was discovered.

He died in 1983, aged 67.

Balthazar Johannes Vorster was known to be a politician with a firm hand and a great diplomat who helped improve South Africa’s image in the world. However, failed to reform apartheid and Muldergate scandal in which she was involved also damaged his political image