B.J. Vorster
Encyclopedia
Balthazar Johannes Vorster (ˈbɐltɐzɐr joˈhɐnəs ˈfostər; 13 December 1915 – 10 September 1983), better known as John Vorster, served as the Prime Minister of South Africa from 1966 to 1978 and as the fourth State President of South Africa from 1978 to 1979. While known for his staunch adherence to apartheid, overseeing as Minister of Justice the Rivonia Trial
Rivonia Trial
The Rivonia Trial was a trial that took place in South Africa between 1963 and 1964, in which ten leaders of the African National Congress were tried for 221 acts of sabotage designed to overthrow the apartheid system.-Origins:...

 in which Nelson Mandela
Nelson Mandela
Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela served as President of South Africa from 1994 to 1999, and was the first South African president to be elected in a fully representative democratic election. Before his presidency, Mandela was an anti-apartheid activist, and the leader of Umkhonto we Sizwe, the armed wing...

 was sentenced to life imprisonment
Life imprisonment
Life imprisonment is a sentence of imprisonment for a serious crime under which the convicted person is to remain in jail for the rest of his or her life...

, and as Prime Minister the Terrorism Act, the complete abolishment of non-white political representation
Coloured Persons Representative Council Amendment Act
The Coloured Persons Representative Council Amendment Act was adapted by the South African House of Assembly in 1968, by the B J Vorster government...

, the Soweto Riots and the Steve Biko
Steve Biko
Stephen Biko was a noted anti-apartheid activist in South Africa in the 1960s and 1970s. A student leader, he later founded the Black Consciousness Movement which would empower and mobilize much of the urban black population. Since his death in police custody, he has been called a martyr of the...

 crisis, he nevertheless concluded a more pragmatic foreign policy than his predecessors in an effort to improve relations between the white minority government and South Africa's neighbours, particularly after the breakup of the Portuguese colonial empire. Shortly after the Internal Settlement
Internal Settlement
The Internal Settlement was the agreement between Rhodesian Prime Minister Ian Smith and Abel Muzorewa in 1978.-Negotiations:Fed up with the sanctions leveled against Rhodesia by the international community and outright political pressure from South Africa, Great Britain and the United States, the...

, in which he was instrumental, he was implicated in the Muldergate Scandal
Muldergate Scandal
The Muldergate scandal, also known as the Information Scandal, was a South African political scandal involving the Department of Information.South African Prime Minister BJ Vorster, Dr. Connie Mulder and Dr...

 and resigned the premiership in favor of the ceremonial presidency, which he was forced to give up as well eight months later.

Early life

Vorster was born in 1915 at Uitenhage
Uitenhage
Uitenhage is a South African town with 275,185 inhabitants in the Eastern Cape Province. It is well known for the Volkswagen factory located there, which is the biggest car factory on the African continent. The town's name is pronounced by English speakers and in Afrikaans...

, Cape Province
Cape Province
The Province of the Cape of Good Hope was a province in the Union of South Africa and subsequently the Republic of South Africa...

, Union of South Africa
Union of South Africa
The Union of South Africa is the historic predecessor to the present-day Republic of South Africa. It came into being on 31 May 1910 with the unification of the previously separate colonies of the Cape, Natal, Transvaal and the Orange Free State...

, the fifteenth son of a successful sheep rancher. He attended school there and then, as a law student, entered Stellenbosch University
Stellenbosch University
Stellenbosch University is a public research university situated in the town of Stellenbosch, South Africa. Other nearby universities are the University of Cape Town and University of the Western Cape....

. Stellenbosch University has been called the "cradle of Afrikaner nationalism." With six out of the seven prime ministers South Africa had between 1910 and 1971 being students from there its influence on the development of Afrikaans
Afrikaans
Afrikaans is a West Germanic language, spoken natively in South Africa and Namibia. It is a daughter language of Dutch, originating in its 17th century dialects, collectively referred to as Cape Dutch .Afrikaans is a daughter language of Dutch; see , , , , , .Afrikaans was historically called Cape...

 culture has been profound. Vorster involved himself in student politics becoming the chairman of the debating society, deputy chairman of the student council and leader of the junior National party.

In 1938, Vorster graduated to become a registrar (judge's clerk) to the judge president of the Cape Provincial Division of the South African Supreme Court. But he did not remain in this post for long, setting up his first law practice in Port Elizabeth and his second in the Witwatersrand
Witwatersrand
The Witwatersrand is a low, sedimentary range of hills, at an elevation of 1700–1800 metres above sea-level, which runs in an east-west direction through Gauteng in South Africa. The word in Afrikaans means "the ridge of white waters". Geologically it is complex, but the principal formations...

 town of Brakpan.

Ossewabrandwag

From 1939 on, Vorster attracted notoriety by strongly opposing South Africa's intervention on the side of the Allies and, their former foe, England in World War II. More out of an anti-English feeling than a positively pro-Nazi spirit, Nationalists enthusiastically hoped for a German victory.

Vorster dedicated himself to an anti-British, pro-Nazi organisation called the Ossewabrandwag
Ossewabrandwag
The Ossewabrandwag was an anti-British and pro-German organization in South Africa during World War II, which opposed South African participation in the war...

(Ox-wagon Sentinel), which had been founded in 1938 in celebration of the centenary of the Great Trek
Great Trek
The Great Trek was an eastward and north-eastward migration away from British control in the Cape Colony during the 1830s and 1840s by Boers . The migrants were descended from settlers from western mainland Europe, most notably from the Netherlands, northwest Germany and French Huguenots...

. Under the leadership of J. F. van Rensburg, the Ossewabrandwag conducted many acts of sabotage against South Africa during World War II to limit its war effort. Vorster claimed not to have participated in the acts of war attributed to the group.

Vorster rose rapidly through the ranks of the Ossewabrandwag becoming a general in its paramilitary wing. His involvement with this group led to his detention at Koffiefontein
Koffiefontein
Koffiefontein is a small farming town in the Free State province of South Africa. Farming in the district focuses on cattle and sheep farming with lucerne, potatoes and ground nuts being the main crops sown. There are also a cheese factory and vineyards in the town...

 in 1942. Following his release in 1944 from that detention camp, Vorster became active in the National Party
National Party (South Africa)
The National Party is a former political party in South Africa. Founded in 1914, it was the governing party of the country from 4 June 1948 until 9 May 1994. Members of the National Party were sometimes known as Nationalists or Nats. Its policies included apartheid, the establishment of a...

, which began implementing the policy of Apartheid in 1948. Although racial discrimination in favour of whites had long been a central fact of South African politics and society, the National Party institutionalised racism through Apartheid legislation.

House of Assembly

In 1953, Vorster was elected to the House of Assembly
House of Assembly of South Africa
The House of Assembly was the lower house of the Parliament of South Africa from 1910 to 1984, and latterly the white representative house of the Tricameral Parliament from 1984 to 1994, when it was replaced by the current National Assembly...

 representing the seat of Nigel in the Transvaal
Transvaal Province
Transvaal Province was a province of the Union of South Africa from 1910 to 1961, and of its successor, the Republic of South Africa, from 1961 until the end of apartheid in 1994 when a new constitution subdivided it.-History:...

. He was appointed as Deputy Minister in 1958. He was an MP
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

 during the terms of prime ministers D.F. Malan
Daniel François Malan
Daniel François Malan , more commonly known as D.F. Malan, was the Prime Minister of South Africa from 1948 to 1954. He is seen as a champion of Afrikaner nationalism. His National Party government came to power on the program of apartheid and began its comprehensive implementation.- Biography...

, J.G. Strijdom
Johannes Gerhardus Strijdom
Johannes Gerhardus Strijdom, commonly called JG Strydom or Hans Strydom , nicknamed the Lion of the North, was Prime Minister of South Africa from 30 November 1954 to 24 August 1958...

 and Dr Hendrik Verwoerd
Hendrik Frensch Verwoerd
Hendrik Frensch Verwoerd , commonly identified as H.F. Verwoerd, was Prime Minister of South Africa from 1958 until his assassination in 1966...

. Vorster's past as a draft-dodger and Nazi sympathiser 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 PM Verwoerd, a self-outspoken mentor and idol of Vorster, and he combined that with Minister of Police and Prisons in 1966. Upon Verwoerd's assassination in 1966, Vorster was elected by the National Party to replace him. He continued Verwoerd's implementation of Apartheid legislation, and in 1968 abolished the last four parliamentary seats that had been reserved for white representatives of Coloured (mixed race) voters (realised in 1970).

Vorster's rule nevertheless oversaw several other such proposed bills dropped and the repealing of legislation prohibiting multi-racial sports teams in order to allow for South Africa to be admitted to the 1968 Summer Olympics
1968 Summer Olympics
The 1968 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XIX Olympiad, were an international multi-sport event held in Mexico City, Mexico in October 1968. The 1968 Games were the first Olympic Games hosted by a developing country, and the first Games hosted by a Spanish-speaking country...

 in Mexico. Due to the protests of numerous African nations, however, the proposed team was rejected from competing. As a personal figure B.J. Vorster was described as "flesh and blood" by Progressive
Progressive Party (South Africa)
The Progressive Party was a liberal party in South Africa that opposed the ruling National Party's policies of apartheid, and championed the Rule of Law. For years its only member of parliament was Helen Suzman...

 MP
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

 Helen Suzman
Helen Suzman
Helen Suzman, DBE was a South African anti-apartheid activist and politician.-Biography:Helen Suzman, a life-long citizen of South Africa, was born as Helen Gavronsky in 1917 to Jewish immigrants....

 in contrast to the "diabolical" and "frightening" Verwoerd. To the South African public, Vorster was held in great affection for his eccentric and sometimes humorous manner. Notable 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 happiest police state
Police state
A police state is one in which the government exercises rigid and repressive controls over the social, economic and political life of the population...

 in 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 of Māori players and spectators during the tour of New Zealand national rugby union team in South Africa in 1970.

Most notably, Vorster was more pragmatic than his predecessors when it came to foreign policy. He caused relations with other African nations to improve, 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 of Rhodesia
Rhodesia
Rhodesia , officially the Republic of Rhodesia from 1970, was an unrecognised state located in southern Africa that existed between 1965 and 1979 following its Unilateral Declaration of Independence from the United Kingdom on 11 November 1965...

, which was ruled by a white minority government that had rebelled against British rule. 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. In September 1976, under pressure from US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger
Henry Kissinger
Heinz Alfred "Henry" Kissinger is a German-born American academic, political scientist, diplomat, and businessman. He is a recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. He served as National Security Advisor and later concurrently as Secretary of State in the administrations of Presidents Richard Nixon and...

 he pressured Ian Smith
Ian Smith
Ian Douglas Smith GCLM ID was a politician active in the government of Southern Rhodesia, the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, Rhodesia, Zimbabwe Rhodesia and Zimbabwe from 1948 to 1987, most notably serving as Prime Minister of Rhodesia from 13 April 1964 to 1 June 1979...

, the Rhodesian Prime Minister
Prime Minister of Rhodesia
The Prime Minister of Rhodesia was the head of government in the colony of Rhodesia. Rhodesia's political system was modelled on the Westminster system and the Prime Minister's role was similar to that of the same position in other countries such as the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New...

, to accept in principle that white minority rule could not continue indefinitely. Smith subsequently resigned in June 1979.

Retirement

Vorster retired as Prime Minister in 1978, after twelve years in office. He was succeeded by P.W. Botha
Pieter Willem Botha
Pieter Willem Botha , commonly known as "P. W." and Die Groot Krokodil , was the prime minister of South Africa from 1978 to 1984 and the first executive state president from 1984 to 1989.First elected to Parliament in 1948, Botha was for eleven years head of the Afrikaner National Party and the...

, a hardliner who nevertheless began the first reforms to moderate the Apartheid system. Following his retirement as Prime Minister, Vorster was elected to the largely honorary position of State President
State President of South Africa
State President, or Staatspresident in Afrikaans, was the title of South Africa's head of state from 1961 to 1994. The office was established when the country became a republic in 1961, and Queen Elizabeth II ceased to be head of state...

. His tenure in that office, however, was short-lived. In what came to be known as the Muldergate Scandal
Muldergate Scandal
The Muldergate scandal, also known as the Information Scandal, was a South African political scandal involving the Department of Information.South African Prime Minister BJ Vorster, Dr. Connie Mulder and Dr...

 so named after Dr Connie Mulder
Connie Mulder
Connie Mulder, born Petrus Cornelius Mulder , was a South African politician and father of present cabinet minister and leader of the Freedom Front Plus Pieter Mulder....

, the Cabinet minister at the centre of it, Vorster was 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. He died in 1983, aged 67 years.

External links

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