The South African Biological Weapons Program - Deadly Cultures: Biological Weapons Since 1945 - page 199

All were white, and only first names were used; Immelman had a false
one. Basson instructed Immelman to work with the three and to see to
their requirements. He met them three or four times in public places in
Pretoria, where they discussed substances that could be used to “elimi-
nate” people, how to administer these, and what symptoms to expect. 35
Immelman kept a list of the substances handed to the three men—what
has come to be known as the “Verkope [sales] list.” Included on the list
were beer contaminated with botulinum toxin, sugar contaminated with
Salmonella, and chocolates laced with anthrax and botulinum toxin. 36
During Basson's trial it emerged that the three were police officers. 37
In addition, Immelman acknowledged occasionally giving Basson small
quantities of paraoxon, as well as thallium-contaminated whiskey. Dur-
ing his trial Basson claimed that these had been provided for training pur-
poses. 38
Veterinarian and microbiologist Dr. Mike Odendaal testified both to
the TRC and during the Basson trial that as head of the Department of
Microbiology at RRL he had developed some of the biological assassina-
tion weapons. He spoke of infecting cigarettes and chocolates with an-
thrax spores, sugar with Salmonella, and chocolates with botulinum toxin.
Odendaal was in no doubt that these were intended for operational use. 39
Odendaal also oversaw what was probably the most sophisticated work
done at the facility, carried out by junior scientist Adriaan Botha. The
outcome was the bacterium E. coli genetically modified to express the ep-
silon toxin of Clostridium perfringens. Botha maintains that his research
was motivated by his personal interest in developing a recombinant vac-
cine against enterotoxemia in sheep and claims that to get his proposal
passed by the management of RRL 40 he deliberately included reference to
its potential military application. Botha stressed that the work went as far
as the development of a vaccine for testing purposes, but that the project
was nowhere near developing a biological weapon. In an interview Botha
said that he was never asked to take the work further to develop its mili-
tary potential and was “almost certain I would have refused” if asked. 41
During a later discussion he elaborated, saying, “I never believed they
would use the substances produced, and I tried not to do any work for
André Immelman. There were two kinds of work: on the one hand, one
had to do commercial tests on substances, which was not in the least
challenging; but then there was the other work, which involved the en-