The South African Biological Weapons Program - Deadly Cultures: Biological Weapons Since 1945 - page 206

Act, prohibiting exports to the police or military in countries with consis-
tent human rights violations. 74 In September 1982 the Armaments Cor-
poration of South Africa announced that its large-caliber howitzers could
fire nuclear rounds if necessary, but that South Africa did not intend to
use such weapons. 75 In January 1983 the Reagan administration modi-
fied US limitations on exports to the South African and Namibian mili-
tary and police forces. New guidelines permitted the export of certain
nonstrategic industrial, chemical, petroleum, and transportation equip-
ment without a license. This was the third relaxation of export restric-
tions in less than a year. 76 These are but a few of the announcements and
actions that both preceded and paralleled the start of South Africa's BW
program. Although US congressional attitudes to South Africa hardened
with the Senate's passage of the Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act in
August 1986, 77 the Reagan administration continued to oppose sanc-
tions. The fact that the US and other Western nations adopted a lenient
attitude toward the apartheid government on matters of strategic impor-
tance during the 1970s and 1980s provided a context that limited the
constraints on South African decisionmakers in authorizing the CBW
program.
International opinion eventually hardened against South Africa and
the government, particularly following the election of De Klerk in 1989,
who was forced to begin dismantling its racially discriminatory mea-
sures. 78
Loose Ends: A Dangerous Legacy
In 1991 RRL was privatized in a complicated deal that involved the trans-
fer of ownership to a company owned by RRL's managing director, Dr.
Wynand Swanepoel, and a group of RRL employees. 79 The intention was
for RRL to increase its private-sector contracts, while the SADF contracts
would be phased out. But by 1994 the company was bankrupt and was
put into voluntary liquidation. A liquidation dividend was paid out to a
group of nine RRL employees for just under R 18 million, of which just
over 9 million was paid to Swanepoel or to companies in which he had an
interest. 80
Three of the scientists who profited from the liquidation used their
payouts to establish a smaller independent biotech company, called Bio-