1976-81. He was also elected as secretary of the National Party Study Group on Finance from 1979-81. He was also the Information Officer for the National Party from 1977-81. In 1982, he was elected chairman of the committee that studied South African Broadcasting, but remained interested in finance and economics and was eventually elected Minister of Foreign Affairs and Information. Until this appointment, he served as director for twelve companies. As a minister, he was concerned with the Government's relationship with the press. In his first few weeks, he made some controversial statements regarding the SABC 's broadcasting Conservative Party propaganda and reporting on government affairs. He was also present, along with Pik Botha, Minister of Foreign Affairs, at the negotiations with Angolan leaders. On 23 November 1983, he was appointed as the Minister of Education and Training in P. W. Botha's Cabinet, being succeeded the following year by Frederik Willem de Klerk. Here he encountered school boycotts in Atteridgeville, Pretoria, where he personally negotiated with the student leaders to deal to their problems. In an effort to ease tensions after the death of a student during police action, he consulted with Bishop Desmond Tutu, but by May 1984, six Atteridgeville and Saulsville schools closed. He sought to understand the role of the black community and to reorganise schools and pointed out that any parent or student had a direct communication with him as minister. In 1984, during the budget speech of his department in Parliament senior black teachers attended the debate. He declared that there would be no racial restrictions in the future in the Department of Education. Barend du Plessis was appointed as the Minister of Finance in August 1984. He succeeded Dr. Owen Horwood, inheriting an extremely complex task. South Africa was in financial trouble as a result of various factors including the decline in value of gold. The rand/dollar exchange rate was at an all-time low and the land was shrouded in a general drought; with exports dropping significantly. In 1985, he was charged with the task of restructuring South African international credit so foreign banks could extend short-term credit to South Africa. He served as Finance Minister in the latter part of P. W. Botha's cabinet and in the first part of F. W. de Klerk's administration. He later became the chairman of the National Party 's Federal Information Committee and member of the Executive