Muldergate
The Muldergate scandal, also known as the Information Scandal or Infogate, was a South African political scandal involving a secret propaganda campaign conducted by the apartheid Department of Information. It centred on revelations about the department's use of a multi-million rand secret slush fund, channelled from the defence budget, to fund an ambitious series of projects in publishing, media relations, public relations, lobbying, and diplomacy. Most ambitiously, the fund was used to establish a new pro-government newspaper, the Citizen, and in attempts to purchase both the Rand Daily Mail and the Washington Star. The projects, involving a total amount of at least $72 million, aimed primarily to counter negative perceptions of the South African government in foreign countries, especially in the West.
The scandal broke in 1977 and implicated the Prime Minister, B. J. Vorster. Also centrally involved in "Project Annemarie" were Eschel Rhoodie, Secretary of Information; Connie Mulder, Minister of Information, and a rising star in the National Party; and Hendrik van den Bergh, the Head of the Bureau for State Security. A series of internal investigations, inquiries, and media exposés culminated in the resignation in disgrace of all four men. In fact, during the course of the scandal, Vorster resigned twice, first from the Prime Ministership and then from the State Presidency. P. W. Botha, Vorster's successor as Prime Minister, was Minister of Defence throughout Project Annemarie's lifespan and was implicated in facilitating the slush fund, but he was ultimately cleared of all wrongdoing. Rhoodie was prosecuted for fraud and theft, and one other participant, American media magnate John P. McGoff, also faced criminal charges related to the scandal.
Background
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, which also helped with its funding.
In September 1972, Mulder appointed Rhoodie Secretary of Information – the Department of Information's head of "dirty tricks," on some accounts. 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
- Backdoor diplomacy with African countries and with Israel;
- Purchase of a 50 percent interest in UPITN, a television news service based in London;
- 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.
The ''Citizen''
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. Luyt's counterpart in this unsuccessful bid was right-wing media magnate John P. McGoff, who was provided $11.3 million in Project funds with which to purchase the Star. 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. Over the next two years, revelations about the department's activities and secret propaganda campaign emerged through a series of official inquiries and in the press. The Rand Daily Mail under Allister Sparks and the Sunday Express under Rex Gibson broke the story and were particularly active in investigating it.At least in conservative society and within the ruling National Party, the scandal was less about the fact of a state propaganda campaign than about the mismanagement of state funds, appropriated without the knowledge of Parliament, and an apparent cover-up by senior government officials and elected representatives. 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.