Word: vorster
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Terse. Unemotional. Pragmatic. Unpredictable. Those were the hallmarks of Prime Minister John Vorster's twelve-year rule in South Africa, and never were they more evident than on his leaving last week...
...brief, businesslike address to the country, speaking first in Afrikaans and then in English, Vorster, 62, declared that he was quitting his post as well as the leadership of the right-wing National Party, which has dominated South African politics for 30 years. He gave no reason, though his resignation had been widely rumored because of his failing health (he reportedly suffers from lung congestion and an embolism in his leg). But he made one thing plain: "I leave this office with no regrets whatsoever...
...that announcement were not dramatic enough for one day's rumination, Vorster followed with another, this one concerning Namibia (South West Africa), the mineral-rich territory that South Africa has administered since 1920. South Africa, said Vorster, was withdrawing its earlier agreement to a United Nations-supervised plan to grant independence to Namibia. Instead, it would proceed with its own "internal settlement" and hold elections in the territory in November. Among the reasons: the U.N.'s postponement of elections from December until next April would endanger Namibia's security, and the proposed increase from...
AFTER MORE than three decades of debates, resolutions, and narrowly avoided confrontations, the international conflict over the political status of Namibia has finally reached a time of hard, no-nonsense decisions. Last week, an ailing John Vorster announced his resignation as South African Prime Minister and, as his final act in office, backed out on the tentative agreement Pretoria and Namibian nationalists made in July to allow United Nations military and civilian personnel to supervise the election of an independent Namibian government...
...press reports suggest the State Department still does, that Pretoria will decide of its own accord to abandon this reprehensible course. But given South Africa's past history of cynical contempt for world opinion and the current political turmoil within the Nationalist party caused by the resignation of Vorster, such a magnanimous change of heart appears unlikely. In Afrikanerdom, politicians consolidate support by demonstrating that they are the meanest, toughest-skinned leaders in town, not by coming out on the dove side of hot issues...