On 24 March 1993, President De Klerk announced in Parliament that he had given instructions in 1989 to dismantle South Africa’s nuclear weapons capability – including six and a half atom bombs – that had been developed since 1974.

He had done so because of:

• the Tripartite Accord of 22 December 1988 leading to the withdrawal of Cuban troops from Angola and the independence of Namibia;
• the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the Cold War; and
• the prospect of resolving confrontation with African countries and the international community arising from the constitutional transformation process.

He announced that South Africa had signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty on 10 July 1991, and had entered into a safeguards treaty with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in terms of which the IAEA had been permitted to inspect all South Africa’s nuclear facilities and monitor all fissionable material.

SOUTH AFRICA REMAINS THE ONLY COUNTRY THAT HAS EVER DISMANTLED A NUCLEAR WEAPONS CAPABILITY THAT IT, ITSELF, HAD CREATED.