Project Coast was a top-secret chemical and biological weapons (CBW) programme instituted by the apartheid-era government of South Africa in the 1980s. Project Coast was the successor to a limited postwar CBW programme, which mainly produced the lethal agents CX powder and mustard gas, as well as non-lethal tear gas for riot control purposes. The programme was headed by the cardiologist Wouter Basson, who was also the personal physician of South African Prime Minister P. W. Botha. Project Coast contributed to the operationalisation of covert weapon programs which targeted opponents of the apartheid regime, this include at least the lethal killing of 200 members of Namibia's liberation movement SWAPO, members of the Mozambique RENAMO rebel movement and the attempted assassination of senior figures associated with the ANC including Pallo Jordan and Ronnie Kasrils. A notable survivor, Frank Chikane, survived an assassination attempt with supplied poison from Project Coast. In the 1980s, racial fears facilitated the development of a large-scale anthrax production facility at Roodeplaat Research Laboratories (RRL). It has also been reported that further plans were prepared for a "black bomb", this entailed the use of bacteria or specific biological pathogens to target black populations and ensure the survival of the Apartheid era South Africa. Other confirmed areas of exploratory research involved Project Coast have related to controlling the Black South African population through a number of avenues such as lowering fertility rates and contaminating water supplies. Further speculations have been made between the activities Project Coast and the timely emergence of HIV in the South African region, with a vial of HIV/AIDs found at the Roodeplaat facility, but this latter allegation has not been conclusively proven.
History From 1975 onwards, the South African Defence Force (SADF) was embroiled in conventional battles in Angola as a result of the South African Border War. The perception that its enemies had access to battlefield chemical and biological weapons (CBW) led South Africa to begin expanding its programme, initially as a defensive measure and by researching vaccines. As the years went on, research shifted to offensive uses. In 1981, Botha ordered the SADF to develop CBW technology for use against South Africa's enemies. In response, the head of the South African Medical Service division, which was responsible for defensive CBW capabilities, hired Wouter Basson, a cardiologist, to visit other countries and report back on their respective CBW capabilities. He returned with the recommendation that South Africa's programme be expanded. In 1983, Project Coast was formed, with Basson at its head. To hide the programme and its procurement of CBW-related substances, Project Coast formed four front companies: Delta G Scientific Company, Roodeplaat Research Laboratories (RRL), Protechnik and Infladel. Ben Raubenheimer was appointed as CEO. Nelson Mandela was a planned target of Project Coast with the intention to poison him with toxic agents to damage his mental capacities whilst he was incarcerated during the Botha regime. According to later witnesses during the trial of Dr. Wouter Basson in 2002, the initial plan was to poison Mandela with thallium shortly before his release in 1990. Project Coast created a progressively larger variety of lethal offensive CBW toxins and biotoxins, in addition to the defensive measures. Initially, they were intended for use by the military in combat as a last resort. To that end, they copied Soviet techniques and designed devices that looked like ordinary objects but could poison those targeted for assassination. Examples included umbrellas and walking sticks that fired pellets containing poison, syringes disguised as screwdrivers, and poisoned beer cans and envelopes. In the early 1990s, with the end of apartheid, South Africa's weapons of mass destruction programmes were stopped. Despite efforts to destroy equipment, stocks, and information from those programmes, some still remain, leading to fears that they may find their way into the possession of terrorist networks. In May 2002, Daan Goosen, the former head of South Africa's biological weapons programmes, contacted the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and offered to exchange existing bacterial stocks from the programmes in return for US$5 million, together with immigration permits for him and 19 other associates and their family members. The offer was eventually refused, with the FBI claiming that the strains were obsolete and therefore no longer a threat.
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