Background
Connie Mulder was born on June 5, 1925, at Warmbaths, Transvaal, youngest of a civil servant’s 10 children.
Connie Mulder was born on June 5, 1925, at Warmbaths, Transvaal, youngest of a civil servant’s 10 children.
Educated first at Potchefstroom then matriculated in 1941 at Monument Senior School, Krugersdorp, 20 miles west of Johannesburg. After gaining a Bachelor of Arts degree at Potchefstroom University in 1944 he spent a year at training college and began teaching at Randgate Afrikaans Medium School in 1946.
His political career began at Randfontein where he was elected to the City Council in 1951 and was mayor in 1953 and 1957. He entered national politics as MP for Randfontein in April 1958. Prime Minister Verwoerd gave him his first political break by appointing him Assistant Information Officer of the Nationalist Party in February 1966. The following year, on July 1, 1967, he was made Chief Information Officer. A year later, on August 12, 1968, he was given a seat in the cabinet in charge of Information, Social Welfare, Pensions and Immigration. He relinquished the Immigration portfolio on becoming Minister of the Interior.
As Minister of Social Welfare he won praise for his handling of the drug problem with stiff penalties for drug pushing. He introduced measures in May 1971 providing for the seizure of property, including bank deposits, of people found guilty of peddling drugs. As Information Minister he established better relations with the Press than any previous Nationalist administration enjoyed.
His approach to politics, with a style much less abrasive than that of many other ministers, allowed for flexibility and even the admission of mistakes. On a visit to London in July 1971 he said: “We in South Africa do not regard our¬selves as being above criticism. As a matter of fact, we have made mistakes in the past and we will make mistakes in the future because we are human and therefore fallible.” At the same time he was defiant of outside pressures to “change certain laws and customs” which he regards as essential to protect the country’s way of life: “We are not prepared to sacrifice our identity as a nation in our own right or our future to satisfy the demands of world opinion.”
He acquired an excellent springboard for a bid for the premiership when he took over the leadership of the Transvaal Nationalist Party from Ben Schoeman in September 1972.
Right-of-centre, often a hardliner leaning towards verkrampte attitudes, he balances the promotion of dialogue in neighbouring black African states with a tough “No surrender” policy on separate development at home. A clever debater, head and shoulders above most other ministers in the art of communicating policies, he has helped to smooth over many of the rough edges in the government image.