Secrets and lies

This is a book about the South African chemical and biological warfare programme as told through the trial of Dr Wouter Basson. The trial, which started in October 1999 and concluded in April 2002, resulted from various investigations by the South African authorities which saw Basson initially charged with 67 accounts of alleged criminal activity. At the end of the 30 month trial Basson was found not guilty on all the charges which remained after the Judge had earlier acquitted him on others. As head of the South African Defence Force’s chemical and biological warfare programme, Basson was charged with setting up and maintain the programme which sought to develop bizarre crowd control agents and a defensive capability for troops fighting in Angola during the 1980s. The story which emerged through the testimony of scientists and defence force operators, and Basson himself, was of a loosely managed secret programme which never had a clear intention. This story is as much about the South African Defence Force’s way of operating during apartheid as it is about the programme itself. The book reflects the stories of the scientists and operators, of Basson himself, of the Surgeon General who managed the programme and of the unusual trial. It tells of Basson’s alleged links with foreign agents, an international “CBW mafia” and of his foreign collaborators and business associates.