PROJECT COAST: Apartheid’s covert operation that built and dismantled SA’s biological weapons programme
The first of six parts on the biological programmes that went by the benign name of Project Coast – a covert endeavour representing some of the worst practices in building and dismantling a biological weapons capability responsibly. Profound lessons can be learnt about how to – and how not to – govern high-consequence programmes.
Project Coast was a covert South African biological weapons program that began under the apartheid government led by PW Botha and continued under the last apartheid president, Frederik Willem de Klerk. The program, which also had offensive chemical weapons components, aimed to develop lethal biological and nuclear weapons technology.
In 1994, the British and US governments demanded the complete dismantling of Project Coast due to fears that its technology and secrets could potentially fall into the hands of rogue states or terrorist groups as South Africa prepared for its first democratic elections. De Klerk ordered the dismantling of six completed and one partially completed nuclear weapons on February 26, 1990, and subsequently shut down the chemical and biological weapons program.
South Africa eventually acceded to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) in 1991 and signed the Chemical Weapons Convention in 1993. The Non-Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction Act was passed during De Klerk's tenure to regulate all weapons of mass destruction and establish a Council for Non-Proliferation within the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition.
Mandela, a strong advocate for non-proliferation, supported de-nuclearization and the termination of Project Coast, although some felt the ANC should have taken more of the lead. Mandela worked diligently to return South Africa to the international community as a principled member state after the country's transition to democracy.
Written by urgent.news from Daily Maverick's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
