Thesis (DPhil)—-Stellenbosch University, 2008. / This dissertation investigates the role played by France in the supply of military
equipment and the transfer of technology to South Africa from 1960. This Franco-South
African defence cooperation was opportune for South Africa, as she faced escalating
international criticism over the apartheid issue and, from December 1963, the first
military embargo, one joined by her erstwhile arms suppliers.
The accession of the National Party (NP) to power in South Africa in 1948 brought a
range of legislation that gave substance to the nationalist policy of apartheid. The
suffering of the South African black population and the refusal of the South African
government to revise its domestic policy, despite the growing international pressure,
induced the newly-independent, Afro-Asian countries to press the United Nations (UN)
to take tougher actions against Pretoria. At the same time opposing Black Nationalist
movements, the African National Congress (ANC) the South West African Peoples’
Organisation (SWAPO) and the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) adopted militant actions
in response to increasingly repressive race legislation in South Africa and South West
Africa/Namibia.
Furthermore, when in 1961 South Africa left the British Commonwealth, she lost the
long-term military commitment from London she had enjoyed for much of the twentieth
century. South Africa would now have to satisfy her defence needs elsewhere. Pretoria
knew that she needed a strong, well-equipped defence force in order to face the growing
internal conflict as well as a possible military onslaught from outside the country.
As a result, South Africa faced the first arms embargo in 1963 when her traditional arms
suppliers, Britain and the USA elected to observe the voluntary terms of the embargo
instituted by the UN. France, at the time under the leadership of General Charles de
Gaulle, identified an opportunity to strengthen her relations with South Africa and
acquire the much-needed strategic materials for her nuclear programme; he decided to fill
the space in the military market vacated by Britain and the USA. From 1964, France
became Pretoria’s most important arms supplier, a relationship that lasted throughout the
Gaullist administration. De Gaulle’s decision to supply South Africa with French military equipment and the transfer of technological know-how was based mainly on political,
military and economic considerations. In short, De Gaulle wanted to free France from a
military dependency on the United States, which had come to dominate NATO, and, by
extension, Western Europe. Feeling hemmed in by les anglo-saxons, France, facing a
shortage of North American uranium for her nuclear programme from 1957, sought new
partners to shore up her own strategic vulnerability and ensure a role for her in world
politics. Moreover, in the early 1960s, Apartheid had not yet become an electoral issue in
France, as it was in Britain and the USA, and, in any case, France herself was drawing
negative comment for her actions in the Algerian war of national independence. The
logical outcome was a comfortable rapprochement, for the moment at least, between
Paris and Pretoria.
This military cooperation was broad-fronted and sustained until France implemented her
first partial military embargo in 1975 and voted for the UN mandatory arms embargo in
1977. But, by this time, the weapons industry in South Africa, home-grown with French
assistance, was well-established and placed South Africa in a position to launch military
campaigns against the frontline states, commencing with Operation Savannah in late
1975.
This study analyses the content and impact of the military cooperation between Paris and
Pretoria and creates a better understanding of political and economic dimensions that
were the key in the conduct of Franco-South African defence relations between 1960 and 1990.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:sun/oai:scholar.sun.ac.za:10019.1/1228 |
| Date | 12 1900 |
| Creators | Moukambi, Victor |
| Contributors | Grundlingh, A. M., Van der Waag, I. J., Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of History. |
| Publisher | Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Rights | Stellenbosch University |
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