The South African Biological Weapons Program - Deadly Cultures: Biological Weapons Since 1945 - page 196

few documented orders for assassinations, and police officers testifying
before the TRC spoke of illegal orders being given verbally and using am-
biguous terminology. 18
While the BWC and Geneva Protocol did not appear to deter the mili-
tary from seeking to develop small-scale, covert BW, awareness of the
Convention may have been one factor that led to the program's being run
through front companies so that the military link was hidden.
Structure
The total cost of RRL to the Defence Force, as audited, amounted to R
98,432,657. This figure includes the cost of building the facility, total op-
erational costs, and the payment made by the South African Defence
Force (SADF) when the company was privatized. The only annual figures
available show the operating costs of the company for the financial years
1987-88 and 1988-89. In 1987-88 roughly R3 million was spent; the fol-
lowing year the costs more than tripled, to R11 million. 19 Funds were
channeled from the Secret Defence Account to RRL and Delta G through
a third company, Infladel, established for this purpose. The forensic audi-
tor put the total cost of Delta G at R127,467,406, of which some R40 mil-
lion went into the fixed assets of the company and R50,467,406 into op-
erations. The cost of privatization was R37 million. 20
The structure of the CBW program hid the relationship between the re-
search (RRL) and production facilities (Delta G Scientific) and the mili-
tary. Because the two front companies did not come under the traditional
military command, higher salaries and more benefits could be offered to
the scientists. 21 During interviews with 12 scientists who worked at RRL
and Delta G, 11 claimed that the salaries and generous benefits offered
(including housing subsidies and car allowances) were the principal fac-
tors motivating them to join these front companies. 22
In order to maintain their covers as private companies, Delta G and
RRL undertook commercial work. At RRL this commercial work repre-
sented only 15 percent of the company's income, 23 the rest coming from
military contracts. According to a former RRL director and head of re-
search, Dr. Schalk Van Rensburg, commercial projects represented 5 per-
cent of the work done during the early stages of the company's develop-
ment and later grew to about 30 percent.