Muldergate

, for whom the scandal is named In the early 1970s, public perceptions of the South African government, arising from apartheid and concomitant brutalities, were felt to endanger its reputation abroad, and thus to endanger important trade and financial links. Sectors of the South African state, and Prime Minister B. J. Vorster, worried about South Africa's increasing isolation in the international arena, which was the result of an array of domestic and international factors. Particular concerns were the intensification of sports boycotts and the intensification of calls, especially by the British Anti-Apartheid Movement, for economic sanctions and boycotts. Diplomatic press officer Eschel Rhoodie had written a book on South Africa's global positioning. In 1971 he helped the government to establish a pro-South African news magazine, To the Point, published internationally and supported financially by the state and by its Dutch publisher. The project was authorised by Vorster; by the Minister of Information, Connie Mulder; and by Hendrik van den Bergh of the Bureau for State Security (BOSS), which also helped with its funding. In September 1972, Mulder appointed Rhoodie Secretary of Information Under him, the department began to pursue a concerted communications and propaganda programme. By early 1973, the department had allegedly been involved in the following, funded partly by loans from BOSS: • The establishment of a Committee for Fairness in Sport, a front organisation which addressed sports boycotts; • The establishment of a front business organisation under Gerald Sparrow called the Club of Ten, which criticised what it alleged was bias in attitudes toward the apartheid government; • The establishment of a covert photo news agency, which distributed articles and photos to the European press; • The purchase of a small French newspaper, Le Monde Moderne; • A smear campaign against liberal politicians in the United Kingdom, including Peter Hain; • Contracts with two Labour Party Members of Parliament for lobbying and spying; and • A January 1974 visit to the United States, involving meetings with top politicians and the New York Times. == Project Annemarie ==

From December 1973, these initiatives were expanded and formalised. The department's new approach was to be "a no-holds-barred secret campaign of psychological warfare against foreign opinion." • Extensive use of lobbying groups in the United States; • Contributions toward the 1976 electoral defeats of Senators John Tunney and Dick Clark, who opposed American involvement in the Angolan War; • The establishment of publication firms for propaganda distributed locally and internationally, including in foreign universities; • The establishment of front organisations for research, for transferring money abroad, and for hosting foreign guests in South Africa; • Pamphlet bombs in townships after the 1976 Soweto uprising; and • An attempt to establish black film theatres. later denied that he had been consulted on the Citizen scheme|left|267x267px The Citizen The Project had initially planned to arrange the sale of the Rand Daily Mail, the most staunchly anti-apartheid national newspaper of the era, to Louis Luyt, a conservative business tycoon who would steer the paper in a more sympathetic editorial direction. When shareholders refused to sell to Luyt, the Project decided to establish an entirely new pro-government, but ostensibly independent, English-language newspaper. The Washington Star In 1974, the Project also attempted to facilitate the sale of the American Washington Star, with similar plans to sway its editorial policy toward a favourable view of the South African government. The intention was probably to use the newspaper to influence American foreign policy on South Africa and to attack liberal Democrats. McGoff went on to use part of the funds to purchase an interest in the Sacramento Union, and was ultimately investigated and charged by the American Department of Justice for acting as the agent of a foreign nation. == Public scandal ==

In mid-1977, the department was audited by the state Auditor-General, led by the former Secretary of Information, Gerald Barrie. Barrie reported to Vorster about financial irregularities and the mismanagement of state funds at the department. It emerged, through the state audit and other sources, that Project Annemarie funds had been transferred to private bank accounts and used to fund extravagant trips abroad by Project officials. Deceit by participants became a prominent issue in 1978, when attention turned to the financing of the Citizen. In this regard, Mulder faced particular public censure – in May 1978, responding to a parliamentary question from opposition politician Japie Basson, he had denied outright that the Citizen had been financed with state funds, thereby lying to Parliament. Reynders inquiry Also in July 1978, Vorster appointed BOSS to conduct a special internal investigation into financial irregularities in the use of the secret accounts. The BOSS auditor was Loot Reynders. In late September, the report of the Reynders inquiry was leaked in a nationalist newspaper in Mulder's constituency. The report was remarkably brief and found no irregularities, clearing Mulder and his department. The leak came only days before an internal National Party leadership election in which Mulder was slated to compete – he had previously held substantial political power as the Party's apparent "crown prince." However, despite Reynders's favourable report, Mulder lost the leadership election to Botha. Mostert Commission Finance Minister Owen Horwood appointed Justice Anton Mostert to carry out an inquiry into foreign exchange control violations in particular. He also said that Vorster was one of three Cabinet members – the others being Defence Minister Botha and Finance Minister Horwood – who had attended meetings on Project Annemarie from 1974 onward. Vorster continued to maintain that he had first learnt of the Citizen project in August 1977, during the state audit, and that it had been discussed in his Cabinet only once, shortly before his resignation as Prime Minister. However, Erasmus ultimately came to accept Mulder's account of Vorster's involvement, concluding that Vorster had been fully informed ("knew everything") about, and had covered up, the department's involvement with the Citizen and other projects. While presenting the second Erasmus report to Parliament in June 1979, Botha announced that Vorster had resigned as State President in disgrace. Erasmus did not reveal what other Project Annemarie initiatives had been, and he recommended that dozens of them should continue to operate. In July 1979, he was extradited from France to South Africa to face fraud and theft charges. He was found guilty on five counts and sentenced to six years' imprisonment, but the verdict was overturned on appeal in 1980. Rhoodie continued to maintain that he was innocent and had been the victim of a political "vendetta." == See also ==