New Reports of Israeli-South African Nuclear Collaboration April 21, 1997 According to a report published in the Israeli daily paper Ha'aretz on Sunday April 20, 1997. Israel assisted South Africa in developing nuclear weapons in the early 1980s. The paper based its report on interviews with South African officials, including Deputy Foreign Minister Aziz Pahad, and retired Gen. Constand Viljoen, who was South African chief of staff from 1980-1985, the period during which nuclear weapon development took place. Speculation about such cooperation has been rife since the detection of a suspected nuclear test over the South Atlantic in 1979 (never tied to any country). Firm information about at least indirect nuclear cooperation between the two countries has been available since South Africa declassified its weapon program in 1993. South Africa has previously revealed receiving gram quantities of tritium, a critical material for advanced weapons, from Israel but authoritative reports of direct collaboration in weapon development has so far been lacking. Pahad, however, told Haaretz that Israeli and South African scientists cooperated "on very specific equipment" designed for military use. "The nuclear issue was top secret and many documents were destroyed," Pahad said. He could not be reached by the Associated Press for further comment. However, aides said that the deputy foreign minister has made similar statements in the past. Viljoen, was quoted as saying, "We wanted to get nuclear knowledge from whoever we could, also from Israel." Haaretz also cited past reports that Israel purchased 550 tons of uranium from South Africa for its own nuclear plant in Dimona. In exchange, Israel supplied South Africa with nuclear know-how and material to increase the power of nuclear warheads, the newspaper said. (Reports from Associated Press were used in preparing this article.)