tetsu-katana said:
Well, what would a plausible explanation for a nuclear blast in Johannesburg in 2003 be, then?
In order for the nuclear blast to occur in the first place, you obviously need a nuclear weapon. Now, it is a hell of a lot simpler for the whites to do the nuking, since they were the ones with the weapons in the first place. They would have kept VERY tight reigns on the their nuclear weapons. The time for any sort of black terrorist attack was before 1993. Unfortunately, the only real viable source for nuclear weapons for terrorists is the defunct USSR. In 1993, it would have been almost impossible to get them from Russia, as the USSR was so recently collapsed.
The problem is, then, why would the white South Africans EVER consider nuking Johannesburg? Well, I think that the best chance of this happening is when South Africa is under attack, and Pretoria, the white capital, is threatened. So, this means we're going to have an army massing inside or outside of Johannesburg. The problem now is, what army is this?
I think the best oppurtunity would be to go back two or three decades and divide South Africa. Okay. Now, say sometime in the 1980s, a different leader comes to South Africa. Rather than doing what de Klerk did, he divides South Africa into two nations, one white, one black. The black state, which would probably be comprised of the Cape and Natal, will outnumber the white state, white will probably be comprised of the Transvaal and Orange Free State, nearly 4 to 1.
The problem now is that the Union of South Africa (USA; the white state) will have plenty of oppurtunity to nuke the invading forces of the Republic of South Africa (RSA; the black state) BEFORE they get to the heartland of the USA. The only way to avoid this, as I can see, is for the USA to concede the sparsely populated Wilge River valley to the RSA at its conception. The USA will still retain Bloemfontein in the Orange Free State, but the northern Wilge River valley will belong to the RSA, moving the border just that much closer to Johannesburg. So, now we have a war in 2003, after the RSA has had some chance to build a real army. The RSA army crosses the border and, amazingly catches the USA army napping. They reach Johannesburg. The USA faces collapse if the RSA captures Pretoria, barely 100 miles away. We have nearly four divisions of Republic soldiers being faced by only two brigades of USA soldiers.
Now, the leaders of the USA make a choice, sacrifice the city of Johannesburg (including its large black population, probably the largest concentration of blacks in the entire USA) or face the loss of their nation. Not a suprise what they do, especially since they may sadly view the loss of the black population as an added little bonus. In November of 2003, a lone USAAF fighter-bomber takes off, dropping a single bomb on the jam-packed city of Johannesburg (they're careful to steer clear of the mines, however)...