The South African Biological Weapons Program - Deadly Cultures: Biological Weapons Since 1945 - page 201

sults caused some commercial 'jealousy'...and...therelatively easy
way in which RRL solved complicated biological issues without being ob-
viously part of the commercial market, made a lot of competitors suspi-
cious of the real position of RRL.” 48
Although Basson was vague about the BW program when he later
briefed Presidents De Klerk and Mandela, he was much more forthright
about the BW work done at RRL when motivating Defence Minister
Malan to consider privatization. According to Basson, private-sector in-
quiries about RRL's financing put pressure on its managers, but they did
not reveal the links between the company and the state. Basson claimed,
however, that the senior staff at RRL felt that their future was uncertain
and that they had little influence over events. Downscaling of research
and production at RRL only added to their concerns. Referring somewhat
elliptically to arms control, Basson wrote: “It is...often a problem for the
scientists of RRL, (who are not trained to think strategically), to keep per-
spective in the light of the renewal of Western attempts to ban chemical
and biological weapons. It appears to them that South Africa should abide
by these calls. The fact that no country involved is really weighing up
the possibility of moving away from biological weapons is not clear to
them.” 49 Whether Basson was right about his colleagues' desire to abide
by international arms control measures is open to doubt.
Basson's arguments prevailed, and in 1991 the company was sold to
Goosen's successor, Dr. Wynand Swanepoel. The state took a significant
loss on the deal, but Swanepoel and his shareholders, who included Im-
melman and other select members of staff, received a share of the R18
million paid out by the military. 50
The International Context
There is evidence suggesting that the US and the UK were aware of the
South African BW program. In 1981 (the year in which the CBW pro-
gram was initiated) Basson attended a conference in San Antonio, Texas,
where he met Brigadier General W. S. Augerson, former assistant sur-
geon general for research and development in the US Department of De-
fense. Basson discussed CBW with Augerson, who, alerted by Basson's
interest, filed a report with the US Military Medical Intelligence and In-
formation Agency at Fort Detrick. Augerson may also have alerted the US