Defence Minister Khawaja Asif and Minister of Defence and Military Veterans Affairs, South Africa Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on “Defence and Defence Industrial Cooperation” on 27th March 2017.
As per the MoU, both countries will establish a Joint Defence Committee to pave the way for strengthening and diversifying, through formal structures, collaborative programs, the exchange of information and training of the armed forces officers and soldiers.
Acquisition of defence equipment as well as cooperation in research and development (R&D), transfer of technology, and coproduction/joint ventures in public, as well as private sector, also fall within the domain of the MoU.
South Africa's Minister of Defence and Military Veterans Affairs N.N Mapisa Nqakula, who represented her country, reportedly expressed an interest in acquiring JF-17 Thunder fighter jets and Super Mushshak training aircraft and other defence equipment.
The South African National Defence Force (SANDF) was created in 1994, as an all volunteer force composed of the former South African Defence Force, the forces of the African nationalist groups (Umkhonto we Sizwe and Azanian People's Liberation Army), and the former Bantustan defence forces. The SANDF is subdivided into four branches, the South African Army, the South African Air Force, the South African Navy, and the South African Military Health Service.
South Africa is the only African country to have successfully developed nuclear weapons. It became the first country (followed by Ukraine) with nuclear capability to voluntarily renounce and dismantle its programme and in the process signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in 1991. South Africa undertook a nuclear weapons programme in the 1970s. According to former state president FW de Klerk, the decision to build a "nuclear deterrent" was taken "as early as 1974 against a backdrop of a Soviet expansionist threat."
South Africa is alleged to have conducted a nuclear test over the Atlantic in 1979, although this is officially denied. Former president FW de Klerk having confirmed that South Africa had "never conducted a clandestine nuclear test." Six nuclear devices were completed between 1980 and 1990, but all were dismantled before South Africa signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in 1991.