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Witness History

South Africa’s nuclear weapons

Witness History

BBC

History, Personal Journals, Society & Culture

4.41.6K Ratings

🗓️ 2 October 2024

⏱️ 10 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In 1989, South Africa became the first, and only country to make and then dismantle nuclear weapons.

The project was conducted at Kentron Circle, a secret weapons facility.

André Buys was plant manager and systems engineer at Kentron Circle and was involved in making the weapons.

He tells Gill Kearsley about his work on this once top-secret project.

Eye-witness accounts brought to life by archive. Witness History is for those fascinated by the past. We take you to the events that have shaped our world through the eyes of the people who were there. For nine minutes every day, we take you back in time and all over the world, to examine wars, coups, scientific discoveries, cultural moments and much more.

Recent episodes explore everything from football in Brazil, the history of the ‘Indian Titanic’ and the invention of air fryers, to Public Enemy’s Fight The Power, subway art and the political crisis in Georgia. We look at the lives of some of the most famous leaders, artists, scientists and personalities in history, including: visionary architect Antoni Gaudi and the design of the Sagrada Familia; Michael Jordan and his bespoke Nike trainers; Princess Diana at the Taj Mahal; and Görel Hanser, manager of legendary Swedish pop band Abba on the influence they’ve had on the music industry. You can learn all about fascinating and surprising stories, such as the time an Iraqi journalist hurled his shoes at the President of the United States in protest of America’s occupation of Iraq; the creation of the Hollywood commercial that changed advertising forever; and the ascent of the first Aboriginal MP.

(Photo: André Buys and his son standing in front of the empty warhead storage vaults at the former Kentron Circle nuclear weapons facility. Credit: André Buys)

Transcript

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0:00.0

We're living under more tyranny today than our founding fathers did in 1775.

0:05.0

A US presidential election is looming, but underneath,

0:10.0

conspiracy culture rears its head once again and nothing is as it seems.

0:16.0

All those things that we had feared was coming true.

0:18.6

Burn the house down and start over.

0:20.4

It's America through the looking class.

0:23.0

Join me, Gabriel Gatehouse, as the coming storm continues.

0:27.0

Listen on BBC Sounds. Hello and welcome to the Witness History Podcast from the BBC World Service with me Jill

0:40.8

Kursley.

0:43.6

I'm taking you back to 1989, to the country that became the first and to date the only

0:49.4

one to make and then dismantle nuclear weapons, as reported by the BBC in 1993.

0:57.0

South Africa has admitted that it developed and built its own nuclear arsenal during the 1970s and

1:02.3

80s in a surprise announcement to

1:04.4

parliament President de Clerke revealed that South Africa had six nuclear bombs by

1:08.7

1989, but that they were dismantled.

1:11.3

Andre Bice was involved in making the weapons.

1:17.0

It was a highly confidential job.

1:21.0

No one, like your wife, family, friends could be informed about what you were doing. In the 1980s Andre was plant manager and systems engineer at Kentran Circle, a secret weapons

1:37.0

facility in South Africa.

1:41.7

The Nuclear Weapons Project was carried out in a hidden location, a rectangular two-story concrete building with no windows.

1:51.0

It was a top-secret project. The only indication was a notice board that simply said,

1:59.5

workshop. There was only one entrance, a steel sliding door that could only be opened from the inside.

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