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IN APARTHEID'S, SOUTH AFRICA'S

SECUROCRATS POISONED OPPONENTS,
SPREAD TOXINS AND DISEASE GERMS IN
THE NAME OF WHITE SUPREMACY. NOW,
THE NEW GOVERNMENT MUST DECIDE IF IT
CAN EXPOSE THE PAST WITHOUT LOOSING
THE GENIE OF CBW PROLIFERATION.

Wouter Basson, head of CBW

program, on trial for drug charges.
by De Wet Potgieter

The following is excerpted from a major article on apartheid South Africa's chemical
and biological warfare program in its battle to maintain white minority rule.
(The full article with footnotes is available from CAQ.)

DIRTY TRICKS AND DIRTIER

GERMS
As details of South Africa's CBW program emerge, tales of
abuse and evil boggle the mind. These are among the cases that
have emerged thus far:

* Using black units as guinea pigs. Confidential military sources

have suggested that members of the 31st Bushmen Battalion and
other black units in the old SADF were used as guinea pigs for
experimental drugs while they were treated for diseases and
wounds in 1st Military Hospital in Pretoria.

* Impregnating clothing with deadly toxin. During the 1980s,

Roodeplaat Research Laboratories worked to develop a poison
that could be applied to T-shirts so that the wearer would absorb
the poison slowly. As the toxin entered the bloodstream, it would
form a blood clot causing heart failure. An autopsy would thus
show the cause of death to be natural. The plan to target black
student activists failed when the police hit squads who were to
distribute the T-shirts "chickened out."

* Developing race-changing drugs. In one of the most bizarre

projects, the Center for Scientific and Industrial Research
worked on a pill that could turn whites into blacks so that
apartheid operatives could infiltrate the ranks of the enemy.

* Breeding killer dogs. In addition to developing a CBW

capability, Roodeplaat Breeding Enterprises also had a breeding
program to develop a wolf-dog for military tracking and
guarding. The resulting crossbreed of a Russian wolf with a
German shepherd was "reluctant to submit to the authority of
their trainers." Scientist Peter Geertshen said proudly of his first
wolf-dog, "One problem is that he doesn't like blacks because he
was trained in the army Ñ and he's become temperamental in his
old age." Geertshen pointed out that the pups from this first
animal were raised in a non-racial environment, "Our dogs don't
discriminate Ñ they're trained to attack blacks, whites and
women." An even more vicious animal-a cross between a
Rottweiler, a Doberman, and a bloodhound Ñ was also created at
Roodeplaat. The 175-pound "boerbul" was so ferocious that even
international pitbull fan clubs called for a ban because the dogs
were "virtually uncontrollable." The boerbuls were advertised in
the 1980s by the extreme right-wing Herstigte Nasionale Party
as a "racist watchdog" bred "especially for South African
circumstances."

* Poisoning enemies. Apart from developing new macabre

technologies, the CBW program - often in collaboration with the
CCB - planned numerous "conventional" poisonings. In the late
1980s, the CCB decided that Dullah Omar Ñ a member of
Lawyers for Human Rights and now the Justice Minister Ñ
should be killed for defending "terrorists." They hired a
Capetown gangster to exchange Omar's heart pills with poison
pills, but the assassin ultimately aborted his mission because he
admired his intended victim too much.

* Contaminating drinking water with disease pathogens. During

the transition to Namibian independence, the CCB hatched a
plan to contaminate the drinking water of swapo refugee camps
in northern Namibia with yellow fever and cholera bacteria.
Fortunately, the bacteria died from the high chlorine content in
the water supply.

* Planning to poison Mandela. Confidential military sources

have claimed that there were also plans to contaminate Nelson
Mandela's medication with the toxic heavy metal thallium while
he was at Pollsmoor Prison. Colorless, odorless, tasteless, and
difficult to treat, the poison is alleged to have been used by
South African agents on many occasions.
* Poisoning Biko with thallium. Recently seized documents also
suggest that a thallium compound was administered to Black
Consciousness leader Steve Biko while he was being tortured by
police.10 According to documents, the effects of thallium are
easily mistaken for hemorrhaging of the brain resulting from a
blow to the head; thus, a case of premeditated murder may have
been disguised as an "accidental" death during a rough
interrogation session. Dumisa Ntsebezi, head of the TRC
investigative unit, has stated he has an unnamed source who is
prepared to testify under oath that he was in the room in 1981
when another officer allegedly administered the poison to Biko.

* Using carcinogens, CBW, and napalm. President Mandela was

also contemplated as a target of the defense force's CBW
research into the effect of organophosphates and other
substances that enhance cancer. Deputy President Thabo Mbeki
testified before the TRC that the apartheid government used
chemical weapons, poisonous gases, and napalm in attacks on
neighboring states. He also said that scores of the apartheid
government's opponents were assassinated with poison.

* Paralyzing enemies with gas. An investigation by the UN and

the World Health Organization found that during the 1978 "mass
murders at Kassinga" in Angola, victims were paralyzed with
gas before they were shot. The South African Special Forces
conducted the raid, which is regarded as one of the world's most
successful hit-and-run operations in which the entire force was
deployed by helicopter gunships.

* Poisoning food. In 1977, during the so-called "Black

September" incident, apartheid forces tried to poison the food of
500 Umkhonto we Sizwe cadres (the now disbanded ANC
military wing) who were undergoing training in Angola.

* Proliferating poison gas. In Mozambique, poison gases were

provided to the South African-backed Renamo rebels in their
fight against the Marxist Frelimo government. In 1983, Frelimo
troops discovered bombs containing a "poisonous substance"
when a Renamo base was overrun. According to the AC,
chemical weapons were also used in 1992 in an attack on
Frelimo forces which 80 government troops died.

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