Control of communication bureau is placed under Foreign Affairs

Date: 24 Aug 1978
Updated: 30 Sep 2019

Control of communication bureau is placed under Foreign Affairs

After rumours of mismanagement of funds by the Department of Information, Prime Minister B.J. Vorster announced that while Dr. C.P. Mulder would remain Minister of Plural Relations and Development, the Bureau for National and International Communications (BNIC), which replaced the Department of Information on 15 June, 1978, would be placed under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as from 1 September 1978. Vorster and Mulder were later implicated in the 'information scandal' about attempts of the Department of Information to influence international and local public opinion by shifting R64m belonging to the Defence budget to buy international and local newspapers in a propaganda war.

Search events by date

What happened on your birthday?

How we know this

01Kalley, J.A.; Schoeman, E. & Andor, L.E. (eds)(1999). Southern African Political History: a chronology of key political events from independence to mid-1997, Westport: Greenwood.

Last updated · 30 Sep 2019

Cite this entry

South African History Online. (2011, March 16). Control of communication bureau is placed under Foreign Affairs. South African History Online. https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0012355

South African History Online (2011) 'Control of communication bureau is placed under Foreign Affairs', South African History Online, 16 March. Available at: https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0012355 (Accessed: 16 August 2026).

South African History Online, Control of communication bureau is placed under Foreign Affairs [website], https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0012355, (accessed 16 August 2026).

"Control of communication bureau is placed under Foreign Affairs." South African History Online, 16 Mar. 2011, https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0012355. Accessed 16 Aug. 2026.

South African History Online. "Control of communication bureau is placed under Foreign Affairs." South African History Online. March 16, 2011. https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0012355.