2 in Cabinet Demoted in Inkatha Aid Scandal : South Africa: President De Klerk reassigns security officials Magnus Malan and Adriaan Vlok.

President Frederik W. de Klerk on Monday demoted two controversial ministers in charge of South Africa’s security forces in an effort to defuse a growing scandal.

De Klerk said Defense Minister Magnus Malan and Law and Order Minister Adriaan Vlok will change jobs as of Aug. 30. Malan will take over as minister for water affairs and forestry, and Vlok will become minister of correctional services and the budget.

Named as the new defense minister was Roelf Meyer, deputy minister for constitutional development, who was involved in preparing guidelines for a non-racial South Africa. Vlok’s position will be given to former Planning Minister Hernus Kriel.

The reassignment of two of the most powerful men in government was seen as an attempt by De Klerk to maintain his credibility in confronting his most serious crisis in two years in office.

The African National Congress demanded their removal after disclosures that the government had given money to the Inkatha Freedom Party, the ANC’s main black rival. The funds had been funneled through the Law and Order Ministry.

The ANC said it would not negotiate with De Klerk’s white-minority government on a new constitution--to extend voting rights to the 30-million black majority--unless he responded strongly to the funding scandal.

Even before the scandal, the ANC repeatedly accused the security forces of siding with Inkatha in black township fighting that has claimed about 6,000 lives in the last five years.

The water affairs post became vacant when its minister, Gert Kotze, resigned Monday along with two education ministers.

“In view of the retirement of the three ministers, I decided to make a number of other changes in the composition of the Cabinet,” De Klerk said in his statement.

Stoffel van der Merwe, who had been in charge of black education, will take a new job in charge of “marketing and expansion” for the ruling National Party. He will also participate in preparing for power-sharing negotiations.

Piet Clase, who was responsible for white-minority education, said he was resigning so that he could spend more time with his family.

He and Kotze were regarded as being out of step with De Klerk’s reforms.

Van der Merwe and Clase came under fire last month when black children from crowded township schools were barred from using white schools that had been closed for lack of students.

Malan, a retired general, was a prominent hawk who advocated tough military action against the ANC. Vlok played a similar role as head of the police during the four-year national state of emergency that was lifted last year.

De Klerk’s announcement, made after a meeting with security officials, was his first detailed response to the funding controversy since it broke July 19.

ANC officials could not be reached for comment after De Klerk’s announcement. But in an earlier statement, the ANC called for a consumer boycott of white businesses in Johannesburg, Pretoria and surrounding areas.

One ANC member said the group’s leader, Nelson Mandela, might cut short his Latin American tour. Mandela, who arrived Monday in Mexico, is scheduled to return Aug. 6.

The government gave $87,000 during 1989-90 to Inkatha to stage rallies and more than $600,000 to an Inkatha-affiliated union. The government says the money was part of a covert campaign to fight sanctions.

Inkatha and the government oppose sanctions imposed by foreign nations to protest apartheid. The ANC supports sanctions.

Business Day, South Africa’s leading financial daily, said De Klerk will likely identify other moderate and conservative black groups today that had received covert government funding. De Klerk also is likely to propose a sharp cut in spending on covert projects, the newspaper said, citing unidentified government sources.