9. Lessons from South Africa’s Voluntary Denuclearisation Process and the African Continent’s Position on Nuclear Weapons

The African continent is increasingly becoming part of the global debate on denuclearisation. Renewable energy supply in the form of nuclear energy has become a matter of debate on the continent, and new ways of providing electricity is of utmost importance for many Africans. Africa is a continent that is free of nuclear weapons as formally established by the Pelindaba Treaty. South Africa is also the only country in the world to have voluntarily disbanded its nuclear weapons program. The dismantling of the South African nuclear weapons program occurred under very specific circumstances, and the South African experience is not necessarily transferable to other international denuclearisation scenarios. While other countries facing pressure to end their nuclear weapons programs may be confronted with a completely different set of challenges, there are certainly valuable lessons to be learned from the South African experience. The intricate tensions in the Middle East, for example, demonstrate that nuclear armament is usually a symptom of greater political instability and not a cause in itself. There is thus a need for greater focus to be placed on negotiation and diplomacy efforts in order to arrive at the root causes of the imbalances that prompt States to want to establish or expand their nuclear arsenals. However, negotiation and diplomacy efforts should also take into account the differing approaches to the issue of denuclearisation to be able to reconcile such concerns and finally come to a solution which is agreeable to all States.