Worldwide speculation begins that a bright flash detected over the southern Indian Ocean was a South African nuclear test

The event that came to be known as the Vela Incident (after the type of American satellite which detected the flash) occurred over the Indian Ocean, near South Africa's Prince Edward Island.  The most obvious explanation was that someone had detonated an atomic bomb. Many observers came to believe that it was indeed a joint South African-Israeli nuclear test. South African officials adamantly denied knowledge of any blast. However, it was noted that the denials stopped short of saying that South Africa had not detonated a bomb or that the country had no intention of acquiring nuclear weapons. Indeed, it was later revealed that by the early 1990's South Africa had developed a modest stockpile of nuclear weapons despite world economic sanctions. While there were important outside suppliers of the necessary hardware, most notably Israel; it is surprising, even alarming, what the South African government was able to achieve under the circumstances. "These guys were immensely proud of what they achieved under sanctions," says a U.S. State Department official, "they came up with their own home-spun technology." Ironically, by the time ordinary South Africans knew of their county's nuclear weapons capability, it had already been dismantled. On March 24 1993, President F. W. de Klerk announced to a Joint Session of South African Parliament, "at one stage South Africa did develop a limited nuclear deterrent capability," but "early in 1990 final effect was given to decisions that all the nuclear devices should be dismantled and destroyed." South Africa thus represents the world's first instance of nuclear rollback, a state that has unilaterally and voluntarily relinquished its nuclear weapons. To this day, experts are still not certain whether that bright flash detected in September of 1979 was in fact the result of a South African nuclear test or some natural event, perhaps an exploding meteor. Sensing equipment onboard the aging Vela satellite was primitive even by 1970's technical standards. No doubt the alarm demonstrated worldwide concerns over the proliferation of nuclear weapons, and the relative ease at which even a nation under the crushing weight of international sanctions could develop them.