Stefaans Brummer reports on the mystery surrounding the Project Coast chemical weapons programme
PRESIDENT Nelson Mandela and his deputy, Thabo Mbeki, this week backed Defence Force Chief General Georg Meiring in his battle to keep details of South Africa’s apartheid-era chemical weapons programme from the public.
Parliament’s Standing Committee on Public Accounts on Wednesday had to hear part of a South African National Defence Force (SANDF) submission on “Project Coast” in camera — after Mbeki ruled an earlier cabinet decision to lift the secrecy on Coast did not apply.
Democratic Party MP Ken Andrew, chair of the committee, later said he was “disappointed that so many elements of this still remain secret to the public”, and that “African National Congress (ANC) members in particular” were upset about it. ANC MP Llewellyn Landers said: “There was some unhappiness and also an attitude of `We don’t really understand why [the secrecy] is necessary.'”
It is not clear why the executive has decided to back, at least for now, Meiring’s attempt to keep an apartheid-era project under wraps. Wouter Basson, former head of Project Coast, is known to have maintained links with Libya as early as 1993 and still after the 1994 elections. The exact nature of Basson’s visits to Libya — a country with which the ANC government has better relations than the National Party government had — is not clear.
NP leader FW de Klerk dropped a hint this week when he told the Truth and Reconciliation Commission that agreement had been reached within the Government of National Unity that some details of covert operations not be disclosed “in the interests of South Africa” — and that he and Mbeki had both served on a top-level ministerial committee monitoring such operations. De Klerk’s spokesman Fanus Schoeman confirmed the chemical weapons programme could be an example of the type of operation covered by the “framework agreement” of the GNU.
The chemical weapons programme was set up by the SADF in the mid-Eighties under the cover of a number of front companies, chief among them Roodeplaat Research Laboratories and Delta G Scientific. The SANDF maintains Coast was for defensive purposes only, but a Sunday Tribune report last weekend claimed projects included research into a bizarre sterilisation scheme to stem black population growth, and on poisons possibly used against anti- apartheid activists like Reverend Frank Chikane, who now heads Mbeki’s office.
The privatisation of the front companies in the early 1990s, a process in which prominent Project Coast operatives pocketed state assets totalling more than R50-million for an investment of as little as R350 000, attracted the attention of the Office for Serious Economic Offences (Oseo). Among the chief beneficiaries was former special forces soldier Philip Mijburgh, nephew of Magnus Malan. Malan, as defence minister, had been party to an April 1990 decision to privatise Roodeplaat and Delta G.
In late 1994 Oseo reported to Justice Minister Dullah Omar on its investigation, saying it needed permission to follow the flow of funds overseas and asking that the secrecy on the project, regulated by the Protection of Information Act, be lifted.
Omar sent the request to cabinet, but a decision was not taken until April 3 this year, delayed by counter-presentations from the NP and the SANDF. Cabinet’s decision reads that “Oseo be authorised to continue its investigation abroad” and that “the secrecy measures surrounding the project Coast be lifted.”
A dispute over the interpretation of the Cabinet decision arose when Meiring, appearing before the public accounts committee on May 15, did not provide full details on Project Coast. He undertook to supply more details later, but asked that the committee hear it in camera. Andrew replied his committee operated in the open, saying he understood Cabinet to have lifted the secrecy.
Meiring wrote to Andrew again last week, saying: “It is my understanding that Cabinet has given permission for the lifting of the secrecy measures surrounding the project to enable the Oseo to complete its investigation. It is not our understanding that authorisation has been given for a revelation of all the project information and we have as yet not received any directive from our minister to release classified technical and operational detail of the project to anyone.”
Meanwhile, a Defence Ministry insider said, there appears to have been extensive lobbying by “the generals” of Deputy Defence Minister Ronnie Kasrils, who has been handling the issue. On Monday, Mbeki wrote to Andrew backing Meiring’s contention that the cabinet decision to lift the secrecy was relevant only to the Oseo investigation. “I would like to confirm that on April 3 1996, Cabinet approved the lifting of secrecy measures surrounding the project to enable the Office for Serious Economic Offences to continue its investigation overseas on financial matters related to this project.
“Any further decision by Cabinet concerning the secrecy provisions affecting this project can only be taken after the conclusion of this investigation. However, we agree that the chief of the SANDF should answer all questions put by your committee to him. To enable him to brief the committee fully on the project, we request that the hearing be held in camera.”
Mbeki’s spokesman Ricky Naidoo confirmed the letter had been sent to Andrew, but said it was merely a confirmation of a second cabinet decision on the matter, about a month ago. He denied it had changed the April decision, saying it was merely a “clarification”. Repeated approaches by the Mail & Guardian to Cabinet Secretary Jakes Gerwel for confirmation of the second Cabinet decision failed to elicit a response.
Mandela’s spokesman Parks Mankahlana confirmed Mandela backed Meiring’s interpretation. He said: “The view would be an overall lifting can be considered once the Oseo investigation is over … There is no intention to impose permanent secrecy on the matter.”
Mbeki and Mandela’s interpretation appears to be at odds with earlier statements by members of Omar’s ministry. Omar failed this week to answer questions about the original intention of the April decision. Kasrils also did not respond to repeated approaches.
Correspondence between Meiring and Andrew also revealed that Mandela holds the key to disclosure on operational details and the results of the chemical warfare research conducted by Roodeplaat and Delta G.
Meiring said in his letter last week that “elaborate security arrangements implemented on instruction of the president make it impossible for the SANDF to access this information without the explicit instruction and co-operation of the president”.
It is understood the information was captured on a computer optical or CD-ROM disk. SANDF spokesman John Rolt confirmed De Klerk had approved the security measure. “The present president, after he was briefed, endorsed them. Therefore the current president can lift them.”
Mankahlana said Meiring’s statement referred to “an existing set of circumstances” and that it was not Mandela’s own decision — he was “acting in Cabinet”.
In the end, the public accounts committee learnt little new this week. Oseo investigator Dawie Fouche testified that a five-year research contract between the SADF and Roodeplaat was cancelled by the SADF on the same day Roodeplaat was privatised and transferred to Mijburgh and other colleagues in August 1991. The termination of the contract meant the SANDF had to pay these new owners R32,6-million in “cancellation fees”.
Andrew said the in camera session was cut short due to a lack of time shortly after the SANDF had started its briefing. He said Oseo and the auditor general were taking the matter further now, but that the committee “will take it further in due course”.