The Non-Proliferation Council (NPC) will launch an investigation into attempts by the late General Tai Minnaar to broker the sale of biological organisms developed during South Africa’s apartheid-era biological weapons research programme. Details of the attempted deals were reported in the Mail & Guardian last week [See SA general touted anthrax abroad].
The NPC is the statutory body responsible for ensuring that South Africa complies with its legal responsibilities to prevent the spread of chemical and biological warfare technology. It is also responsible for nuclear non-proliferation.
NPC chairperson Abdul Minty — who is also the acting director general of foreign affairs — told the M&G the NPC would have to “look into” the claims that Minnaar had tried to procure deadly anthrax bacteria for sale and that samples of less harmful organisms had been handed over to a shadowy American linked to the CIA.
He said the investigation would also cover the question of whether stocks of prohibited biological material produced for the apartheid war machine had been destroyed or if “some people still have it”.
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