Secrets and Lies

The trial of Dr Wouter Basson, the head of apartheid South Africa's chemical and biological warfare (CBW) programme, generated intense interest both inside South Africa and in the wider world. Basson joined the Army after completing a doctorate in chemistry, and was rapidly promoted through the ranks. He travelled around the world as a spy, on both sides of the Iron Curtain, using fake identities - and often fake marriages - as a front. Back in South Africa, Basson headed Project Coast, the state's CBW programme, during which time he was allegedly involved in poisonings, developing drugs to placate the state's opponents, and simple, brutal murder.