Why South Africa gave up the bomb

Date: 25 November 2015

Time: 10h30 - 13h00

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

This event will be webcast live. Note that proof of identity is required for access to the ISS offices.

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, Nic 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, 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

Venue:

Conference room
ISS Pretoria
Block C
Brooklyn Court
map

RSVP:

Agar Ngwenya
Phone: +27 12 346 9500
Email: angwenya@issafrica.org

Enquiries:

Noel Stott
Phone: +27 12 346 9500
Email: nstott@issafrica.org