---
aliases:
- P.W. Botha
- P. W. Botha
- Pieter Willem Botha
- Piet Botha
born: 1916-01-12
category: Intelligence & Government
created: 2026-05-17
died: 2006-10-31
location: Paul Roux, Orange Free State, South Africa
summary: P.W. Botha (1916-2006) was the Prime Minister (1978-1984) and State President
  (1984-1989) of South Africa who forged a covert wartime alliance with Israel and,
  following the 1979 VELA satellite detection of a probable nuclear test, publicly
  hinted at South African nuclear weapons capability.
tags:
- Person
- Politician
- Military
- SouthAfrica
- Israel
- NuclearWeapons
title: P.W. Botha
updated: 2026-05-18
---

P.W. Botha served as Prime Minister of [South Africa](/places/south-africa/) from 1978 to 1984 and as State President from 1984 to 1989. He had also served as Defense Minister and played a key role in developing South Africa's military and nuclear capabilities.[^1]

### Israeli Alliance and SIMWA

In 1978, [Prime Minister Begin](/people/menachem-begin/) dispatched [Ezer Weizman](/people/ezer-weizman/), then Israeli Defense Minister, to Pretoria to meet Botha to discuss Israeli-South African relations. Despite Begin's intentions to downgrade the relationship, Weizman agreed with Botha on a wartime alliance between the two governments as the price for continuing nuclear tests. This led to the creation of [SIMWA](/misc/simwa/) (SADF-IDF Mutual Wartime Agreement).[^1]

### VELA Incident (1979)

On September 25, 1979, three days after a [VELA Satellite](/concepts/vela-satellite/) recorded probable evidence of a nuclear explosion over the South Indian Ocean, Botha warned the Cape National Party congress that South Africa had and could produce sufficient arms to counter terrorism. He hinted that they might have military weapons that others did not know about, suggesting that South Africa and its Israeli partners had successfully conducted a secret nuclear test.[^2]

[^1]: Ben-Menashe, Ari. *Profits of War: Inside the Secret U.S.-Israeli Arms Network*. TrineDay, 1992.
[^2]: Hersh, Seymour M. *The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy*. Random House, 1991. Chapter 20.