South Africa
Addressing the First Meeting of States Parties to the TPNW (1MSP) in Vienna in June 2022, Alvin Botes, South Africa’s Deputy Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, said: ‘It has indeed been a long journey and now we are finally here, working on the implementation of this vital Treaty. … We must recognise that this Treaty is the democratic wish of the overwhelming majority of UN member states and the people of the world. No longer should the world’s peoples be held hostage to the unspeakable terror of these weapons.’[1]
TPNW Status
| TPNW Article 1(1) prohibitions: Compliance in 2022 | ||
|---|---|---|
| (a) | Develop, produce, manufacture, acquire | Compliant |
| Test | Compliant | |
| Possess or stockpile | Compliant | |
| (b) | Transfer | Compliant |
| (c) | Receive transfer or control | Compliant |
| (d) | Use | Compliant |
| Threaten to use | Compliant | |
| (e) | Assist, encourage or induce | Compliant |
| (f) | Seek or receive assistance | Compliant |
| (g) | Allow stationing, installation, deployment | Compliant |
| TPNW voting and participation | |
|---|---|
| UNGA resolution on TPNW (latest vote) | Voted yes (2023) |
| Participated in 1MSP (2022) | Yes |
| 1MSP delegation size (% women) | 19 (21%) |
| Adoption of TPNW (7 July 2017) | Voted yes |
| Participated in TPNW negotiations (2017) | Yes |
| Negotiation mandate (A/RES/71/258) | Voted yes |
| Other weapons of mass destruction (WMD) treaties | |
|---|---|
| Party to an NWFZ | Yes (Ratified 1998, Pelindaba) |
| Party to the NPT | Yes (Acceded 1991) |
| Ratified the CTBT | Yes (Ratified 1999, Annex 2 state) |
| Party to the BWC | Yes (Ratified 1975) |
| Party to the CWC | Yes (Ratified 1995) |
| IAEA safeguards and fissile material | |
|---|---|
| Safeguards agreement | Yes |
| TPNW Art 3(2) deadline | N/A |
| Small Quantities Protocol | No |
| Additional Protocol | Yes |
| Enrichment facilities/reprocessing plants | No |
| HEU stocks | 100–1000 kg |
| Plutonium stocks | No |
Latest developments
Together with Malaysia, South Africa was appointed by the 1MSP as a co-chair of an informal working group responsible for promoting universalisation of the TPNW.2 In this capacity, it co-facilitated a high-level signing and ratification for the TPNW in the margins of the 77th session of the UN General Assembly in September 2022. Five states signed and two ratified the Treaty on this occasion.3
At the Tenth Review Conference of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) in August 2022, South Africa said that the momentum behind the TPNW is ‘unstoppable’, and that the Treaty ‘goes hand in hand with the intention of the NPT.’4
Marking the International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons on 26 September 2022, South Africa opined that ‘the TPNW serves as a catalyst for much overdue progress in the disarmament pillar of the NPT, and in fulfilling the historic bargain between the nuclear-weapon states and the non-nuclear-weapon states.’5
In the First Committee of the UN General Assembly in October 2022, South Africa encouraged all states that have not yet done so ‘to ratify the TPNW and join the community of nations that are committed to a world free of nuclear weapons. They have a moral duty to join and we have a moral duty to bring them in, under the TPNW umbrella.’6
Recommendations
- South Africa should continue to encourage other states to adhere to the TPNW.
- South Africa should ensure that all the TPNW obligations are implemented domestically, through legal, administrative, and other necessary measures.