Minister of Defence P.W. Botha and Rebuilding the SA Defence Industry
“South Africa had taken part in a secret international conference ‘at service level’ with friendly nations of the Southern Hemisphere about joint defence of sea routes. … It is our duty to be ready for anything in the light of continual meddling in South Africa’s domestic affairs, threats of sanctions and boycotts, and open animosity in certain circles.”
– Defence Minister P.W. Botha (Parliament 1968) –
On 12 March 1968, apartheid Minister of Defence, P.W. Botha, reported to the lower house of Parliament, the Senate, on the Arms Industry and defined the main aims of South Africa’s defence policy. The paranoia that afflicted the Apartheid State regarding a potential uprising by Black South Africans, who were purportedly supported by the Soviet Union and the reluctance of Western Governments to supply South Africa with arms convinced the racist regime that it needed to develop its own means of producing and servicing its armed forces.
These included the provision of manufacturing capabilities regarding nuclear arms, ammunition, aeronautics and armour. Having been in power in South Africa since 1948, the National Party, had entrenched a policy of “apartheid” as a political, social, legal and constitutional system, which was maintained through an aggressive expansion of the government’s military industrial complex, with brutal suppression of all opposition against apartheid.
