Why South Africa gave up the bomb

This event offers insight into why South Africa developed and then dismantled its secret nuclear weapons programme.

Date: 2015-11-25

Time: 10:30 to 13:00

Venue: Conference room , ISS Pretoria , Block C , Brooklyn Court , map

South Africa’s nuclear weapons programme remained a mystery for many years. Finally, in 1993, former president FW de Klerk announced that the country had secretly built and destroyed six-and-a-half nuclear bombs.

This event launches The Bomb: South Africa’s Nuclear Weapons Programme by Nic von Wielligh and Lydia von Wielligh-Steyn.

From 1975, von Wielligh helped produce nuclear weapons material, dismantle the nuclear weapons and provide evidence of South Africa’s credentials to the international community.

The author will be joined by a panel of well-known experts on South Africa’s nuclear weapons programme. They will provide an insider’s perspective into why South Africa developed a limited nuclear weapons deterrence and then voluntarily dismantled the programme. Lessons learnt for current and future disarmament and non-proliferation needs will be discussed.

Chair: Noel Stott, Senior Research Fellow, ISS

Speakers:

• Dr Nic von Wielligh, co-author of The Bomb: South Africa’s Nuclear Weapons Programme
• Tom Wheeler, former South African Foreign Service officer
• Anna-Mart van Wyk, Head of the School of Social Science and Associate Professor of History and International Studies, Monash University, SA

Vote of thanks: Lydia von Wielligh-Steyn, co-author of The Bomb: South Africa’s Nuclear Weapons Programme