Project Coast

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.