Strategic And Operational Aspects Of CW Capabilities

The chemical component South Africa's secret CBW program, Project Coast, was involved in several distinct but interrelated activities: the production and deployment of standard chemical irritants and incapacitants used as Riot Control Agents (which are not prohibited by international treaties as long as they are employed domestically), the carrying out of research on illegal drugs to assess their possible viability as "calmatives," the supposed initiation of advanced research on peptides and peptide synthesis, the production and actual deployment of numerous toxic substances as assassination weapons, and the possible deployment of CW agents against hostile forces in neighboring states. All of these activities were undertaken by the apartheid-era regime, and have since been discontinued in conformity with the Chemical Weapons Convention (with the probable exception of the domestic use of Riot Control Agents, which is not prohibited by that treaty).

The crowd control agents manufactured and used in South Africa included both CS, the standard Riot Control Agent employed throughout the world, and the "new generation" CR teargas. These and other chemical irritants and incapacitants were produced on a relatively large scale, i.e., by the ton, at Delta G Scientific, the principal CW research and production facility, and then sent to other facilities such as Swartklip Products for actual weaponization. They were then employed when needed by specialized units of the South African Police (SAP) in order to quell urban unrest in black townships. CR is considered less toxic but more effective as a Riot Control Agent than CS.

In addition to tear gas, at least laboratory quantities—and possibly much higher quantities—of the military grade incapacitant BZ were produced at Delta G and/or other domestic production facilities. The South African variant of BZ, which was developed to disorient targeted groups quickly via hallucinogenic effects, also contained a certain amount of cocaine to help stabilize the compound and reduce the resulting levels of aggression in those affected. Small amounts of BZ were then sent to Roodeplaat Research Laboratories (RRL), the main South African BW research, testing, and production facility, for animal testing. Project Officer Wouter Basson later testified that four or five tons of BZ was purchased overseas, and that three tons was thence used up in the process of refining the correct formula, pyrotechnical testing, or outright weaponization. It is still uncertain whether such substantial quantities of BZ were really obtained overseas, if they were instead secretly produced inside South Africa, or if they were invented out of whole cloth by Basson.

One of the many interesting aspects of the South African CW program was that some of its scientific personnel sought to transform various illegal mind-altering recreational drugs into "calmatives" for riot control purposes. This was not particularly novel, however, since similar types of research had already been conducted for decades by the United States, the Soviet Union, and various other powers. In South Africa this work was initiated in early 1984, when General Lothar Neethling of the SAP's Forensic Sciences Laboratory was asked to supply Basson with substantial quantities of illegal drugs that had been confiscated by the police from drug dealers and users, including 100,000-200,000 tablets of Mandrax (methaqualone), the active ingredients from five bags of marijuana, and 5,000 tablets of LSD. These drugs were then turned over to scientists at Delta G, who made extensive efforts to turn them into "calmatives," but for a variety of reasons such weaponization efforts proved to be unsuccessful. In some cases, the active ingredients were mostly destroyed by the heat generated by the detonation of their delivery systems (mortar bombs, gas canisters, artillery shells). In others, the actual effect of the ingredient was to agitate animal and human test subjects rather than calm them down. Later on, Basson arranged for some of these illicit substances to be reprocessed in capsule or tablet form, and then may have endeavored to sell these drugs along with MDMA ("Ecstasy") on the black market for profit. Whether he did so primarily to enrich himself or to raise funds to meet bona fide Coast-related expenses remains unclear.

Perhaps the most eye-opening feature of the South African CW program was its research on peptides, which Basson's attorney Jaap Cilliers described as "one of the most dangerous aspects of chemical warfare...brain-altering substances which are...the international community's single biggest CBW nightmare, with terrifying implications for the human race if abused." This aspect of the program may have been carried out in two separate locales. At Delta G, Dr. Lucia Steenkamp was in charge of the peptide research and peptide synthesis program. Although she was then considered to be the leading South African expert in this area, she later testified that it was exceptionally complex and difficult work and that she was not able to proceed very far in the development of peptides that might be usable as CW weapons. However, Basson himself stated that additional research on peptides and their synthesis was also secretly carried out in the laboratories at Special Forces (SF) headquarters, where two of his associates—SF ammunition expert Hekkies van Heerden and Rhodesian explosives expert Bill Grieve—allegedly made far greater progress, working under the tutelage of a mysterious Bulgarian named Georgiev, in developing and testing the effects of peptides as weapons than Steenkamp and her team. Basson specifically mentioned the production of a thymus peptide and in vitro research on its effects on the immune system, research on "growth hormones" and "two or three" brain peptides, and the carrying out of human trials in Swaziland that apparently involved both the oral administration of Thymu-Vocal pills and peptide absorption through the mucous membranes via sniffing. [Note: According to my colleagues with medical and scientific knowledge, the "thymus peptide" mentioned by Basson may be a misnomer resulting from a transcription error, and is more likely a reference to either a thymus protein called thymosin or a thalamus protein.] However, Basson's claims in this regard have not been independently corroborated, and it is possible that he was lying about this additional peptide work in order to convince investigators that the peptide synthesizer he had supposedly purchased with SADF funds had in fact been acquired.

The most characteristic feature of the South African CW program was undoubtedly the development and utilization of a wide array of toxic agents to assassinate "enemies of the state." There were two key precedents for this. One was the testing of lethal chemical agents on prisoners used as human guinea pigs by the Rhodesian Selous Scouts at their main barracks, and the subsequent use of those agents to contaminate denim clothing sold to nationalist guerrillas by various middlemen. This particular poisoning operation carried out during the Rhodesian civil war resulted in dozens of deaths. The other was "Operation Dual," a covert program whose purpose was to murder captured guerrillas who were uncooperative and South African military and police personnel who were considered security risks. This operation was initiated in 1979, two years before Project Coast was formally established. Lieutenant-General Fritz Loots, the very first chief of the fledgling SF, is said to have personally authorized the activation of this elimination program, and soon after also supposedly approved of a plan proposed by Johan Theron, a member of the South African Defence Force's (SADF) paramilitary Barnacle unit, whereby the victims would be secretly disposed of by being dropped from aircraft dozens of miles out over the ocean so that their bodies would never be found. After a couple of hair-raising incidents in which Theron had to kill awakening prisoners who were in the process of being transported with his bare hands, he asked Basson, then the leader of an elite Special Operations medical unit whose personnel accompanied SF operatives into the field, to provide him with drugs to ensure that the prisoners would not wake up and begin struggling for survival. According to Theron, Basson thereafter supplied him with a "cocktail" consisting of the drugs Tubarine and Scoline, which were normally used to collapse the lungs during surgery but would cause paralysis and death if administered to living prisoners. Because of the painful nature of such a death, Basson later allegedly provided Theron with the anesthetic Ketamine so that the victims could first be put to sleep.

In the mid-1980s, "Operation Dual" was replaced by a higher-level and more formalized assassination program when the Teen-Rewolusionêre Inligting Taakspan (TREWITS: Counter-Revolutionary Intelligence Task Force) was created. Consisting of representatives from the Security Branch (SB) of the SAP, the Division of Military Intelligence, the SF, and the National Intelligence Service, one of its primary purposes was to "identify human targets for removal" in a series of monthly reports that were forwarded to the State Security Council. During the period it was operating, TREWITS reportedly authorized a total of 82 extra-judicial killings and 7 attempted killings. The primary units responsible for carrying out these "hits" were covert paramilitary units operating under the aegis of the SF, the Civil Co-Operation Bureau (the Barnacle unit's successor); or the SB, namely the C[ounterinsurgency]1 unit – later renamed C10—based at Vlakplaas. In popular parlance, such units are known as "death squads."

Some of the chemical substances used in these assassination operations were produced at Delta G by Steven Beukes or Dr. Johan Koekemoer, but most were manufactured and tested at RRL. Scientists at RRL, in particular Dr. Mike Odendaal and Dr. James Davies, then prepared stocks of these toxic chemicals, including aldicarb, aluminum phosphide, brodifacum, cantharidin, colchamine, cyanide, digoxin, monensin, paraoxon and parathion, phencyclidine, silatrane, sodium azide, thallium, and cholecalciferol (vitamin D3). There were two types of "delivery systems" for these agents. First, Odendaal, Davies, and other RRL laboratory personnel purposely contaminated a considerable variety of foodstuffs, beverages, and household items with them, such as hard liquor, beer, wine, fruit juices, soda pop, soft-centered chocolates, medicines, lip balm, envelope flaps, razor blades, deodorant, underwear, and cigarettes. According to both testimony and the 1989 "sales list" (TRC document 52), several of these items were later passed on by RRL R&D director André Immelman to members of SADF or SAP covert paramilitary units involved in assassination operations, whose operatives then delivered them to selected targets. After consuming or using them, the targeted individuals typically became very ill or died. Second, beginning in 1987 some of these substances were instead intended for use with "special applicators," arcane assassination devices designed by bioengineer Jan Lourens and prepared by his assistant Philip Morgan, a former Selous Scout and self-taught armorer, in the QB Lab at Systems Research and Development (SRD). Among these devices were rings, screwdrivers, walking sticks, and umbrellas that had been transformed into weapons by means of the addition of poison compartments and injectors or firing mechanisms for poisoned pellets. Although Basson later claimed that these devices were manufactured so that the SADF could develop defensive measures against them, on more than one occasion assassination plots seem to have been hatched that involved their projected use. One example of this type allegedly involved a plan to assassinate two leading African National Congress (ANC) activists in London.

Moreover, small quantities of standard chemical warfare agents were produced at both RRL and SRD, a separate company established in part to test CBW protective gear. These included blister agents like mustard, and nerve agents like tabun, sarin, and VX. Dr. Stiaan Wandrag of RRL later testified that his principal task was to develop CBW antidotes, ostensibly for the protection of VIPs, security force members, and South African agents who might be exposed to CW and BW agents, and that this work was carried out in the basement Compression Lab at RRL. However, in declaring that all research on lethal CBW agents intended for conventional weapons delivery had been concluded by 1986 or 1987, Basson tacitly acknowledged that early on the South Africans may have considered employing CW agents as offensive battlefield weapons. Indeed, on one occasion in January 1992 the SADF reportedly tested an unspecified CW agent—possibly BZ—by bombing Frente de Libertação de Moçambique (FRELIMO: Front for the Liberation of Mozambique) troops from a pilotless observer aircraft near Ngungwe, killing at least five and injuring ten others. Although the SADF then blamed this CW attack on the ANC, the US and British governments both issued a diplomatic protest (démarche) to South Africa, which suggests that they believed that the SADF was itself responsible. Despite accusations that the South African military carried out other CW attacks against enemy troops, e.g., during their successful 1978 raid on Cassinga in Angola, there is no definitive evidence that chemical weapons were actually used in an offensive capacity.

Finally, in addition to producing, researching, and deploying a variety of chemical agents, the South Africans made great progress in designing CBW protective equipment and clothing, supposedly for the benefit of VIPs and their own troops. This work was carried out primarily by Jan Lourens and his staff, first at SRD and later at his specialized company Protechnik, where masks, clothing, detectors, and other types of equipment were first tested in the field using actual CBW agents rather than simulants and then, once it was determined that they provided adequate protection, manufactured for both the SADF and certain foreign armies. The quality of this protective equipment ended up being valued so highly that all the parties participating in the Iran-Iraq War and the Gulf War sought to purchase it for their own forces. In that sense, the specifically defensive aspects of Project Coast and certain other CBW defense-oriented projects can be considered a great success.

In 1990 President F. W. De Klerk prohibited the carrying out of any further work on lethal CBW agents, though Riot Control Agents and incapacitants continued to be made until 1993, when Project Coast was officially terminated. The stocks of standard CW agents produced by South Africa were supposedly destroyed in conformity with international agreements, despite the fact that the actual destruction process was never independently verified. Although several chemical plants there continue to produce highly toxic substances for normal industrial and agricultural usage, none of these substances appear to be intended for deployment as lethal anti-personnel agents. The current government still has access to the type of technical expertise and the sort of sophisticated R&D facilities that would enable it to initiate a new CW program, but there is little reason to suppose that it has any interest in doing so.

Dual Capable Infrastructure

South Africa's chemical industry is the largest of its kind in Africa. The industry has a fairly long history, having been founded at the end of the nineteenth century in response to the demand for explosives and other chemicals from the mining industry. South Africa's politics influenced the post-World War II development of the industry in that South Africa's estrangement from the international community over its racial policies led to an industrial philosophy based on isolationism and protectionism, which resulted in an emphasis on import substitution and the establishment of small-scale (and often unprofitable) chemical plants designed to satisfy local demand. The lack of natural oil reserves meant that to achieve energy independence in an international environment that was rightly perceived to be hostile, much of South Africa's chemical industry developed around the synthesis of oil from coal, which it had in abundance.

Since the industry was developed primarily to satisfy domestic needs, most of its chemical production facilities were built in inland areas (especially in and around the heavily-populated province of Gauteng), close to the coal-based synthetic fuel plants that provided feedstocks. The relatively small size of the chemical plants and their distance from coastal areas make overseas exports expensive, although export to neighboring African countries is still cost-effective. To this day the processing of synthetic products from coal (headed by the SASOL corporation) remains prominent in the country's chemical industry, although changed political circumstances have enabled these plants to diversify from a sole focus on fuel production to the production of other chemical feedstocks and intermediates.

The chemical industry plays a significant role in South Africa's economy, making up approximately 5% of its Gross Domestic Product and 25% of its manufacturing sales. It has been described as highly complex and widely diversified and produces various types of chemicals, from base chemicals through intermediate chemicals to specialty chemical end products. South Africa also has a chemical research infrastructure, with at least twenty universities and technical colleges possessing chemistry departments.

The South African chemical industry is capable of producing a wide range of chemical products, including adhesives and sealants, fertilizers and pesticides, household products, petrochemicals, pharmaceuticals, and plastics. Petrochemical production is centered primarily around the Sasol II and Sasol III plants at Secunda and the Natref refinery at Sasolburg. Using the Fischer Tropsch process, Sasol produces about two million tons per annum of a range of various olefins for the petrochemical industry. Sasol has also been producing higher-end chemicals since the mid-1980s, such as acrylonitrile and acrylic fibres, polypropylene, higher-value phenolics, alpha olefins, alkylamines, as well as higher-value ketones and the noble gases xenon and kryptonite. South Africa also hosts a number of pharmaceutical manufacturers, and local South African companies supply catalysts for the petroleum industry in applications such as fluid catalytic cracking (FCC), hydro-treating, and hydro-cracking. As one of the world's leading producers of chemical tank containers, South Africa also has an indigenous capability to store chemicals in bulk.

The highly-developed nature of South Africa's chemical industry means that there are several potential sources of CW precursors and intermediates. There is a long list of companies capable of producing advanced chemicals in South Africa, including domestic producers such as the above-mentioned SASOL, AECI, Dow Sentrachem, and the Rogoff Fine Chemicals division of Chempro. At the same time, multinational chemical companies such as BASF, Bayer, Henkel, Hoechst, and Shell all have operations in South Africa.

Former organs of Project Coast are still active in South Africa, and their institutional history of working with CW agents would make these companies in particular potential candidates for supplying CW-related chemicals and expertise. Delta G Scientific is now part of the Dow Sentrachem group, and it sells a variety of fine and custom chemicals to the agrochemical, pharmaceutical, and specialty market sectors. Protechnik Laboratories still exists and describes itself as "an acknowledged leader in chemical defense development and research in South Africa." It provides technological support to the South African National Defense Force (SANDF) and consults with the government concerning the technical aspects of implementing the CWC. Protechnik underwent a successful CWC inspection in 1998, and even co-hosted the First African Seminar on Analytical Issues Related to the Chemical Weapons Convention in November 1999. Yet it openly admits that one of its tasks is the "synthesis of chemical agents and related compounds for testing and evaluation of chemical defensive equipment." While the precise nature of these test chemicals is unspecified, this statement implies a continued capability to synthesize dangerous agents, if only for defensive purposes.

	Updated March 2004