/ 20 January 1995

SADF linked to red mercury

Stefaans Brummer

DELTA G Scientific, formerly a South African Defence Force front company and part of Pretoria’s chemical-warfare programme in the 1980s and early 1990s, has been linked to the mysterious nuclear substance “red mercury”.

The SABC’s Agenda stumbled on allegations of a large 1992 clandestine shipment of a mercuric substance to Delta G during research for a programme on murders connected to deals in red mercury. The programme was aired last night.

The Weekly Mail & Guardian disclosed earlier this month that Delta G — now a civilian company — had been an SADF front, part of a network of companies set up to develop chemical and biological warfare capabilities.

Delta G was reported to have carried out research to create nerve gases that could immobilise enemy forces for a number of hours but not kill them, making it possible to overrun strategic installations without exposing friendly forces to dangerous compounds.

Lieutenant-Colonel Charles Landman, head of a special police team set up to probe a string of murders apparently connected to red mercury, confirmed he also had evidence that Delta G had bought more than two tons of yellow mercuric oxide from controversial Natal-based mercury recyclers Thor Chemicals in September 1991.

Agenda producer Jacques Pauw said there was evidence that yellow mercuric oxide was one of the “building blocks” of red mercury, the substance said to make nuclear devices smaller and more effective.

He pointed out that Thor Chemicals executive Alan Kidger was murdered two months after the Delta G deal. Kidger’s gruesome death — he was found completely dismembered and smeared with a black oily substance — has been linked to the trade in red mercury by police investigations.

Agenda produced strong evidence that at least two other murders — those of Durban armaments dealers Don Juan Lange in June last year and Dirk Stoffberg in July — were connected to the trade in red mercury. Both murders were originally thought to have been suicides, but murder dockets were later opened.

Agenda produced documentary evidence of deals in the substance.