The apartheid-era operative dubbed ”Dr Death” for his alleged role in plots to murder black activists is still on the South African military payroll, officials confirmed on Wednesday.
Wouter Basson, who once headed the white government’s germ warfare programme, receives a monthly salary of R50 000 from the South African National Defence Force (SANDF), even though he was suspended from the force in 1999, they said.
”It’s a very complex labour issue that will be dealt with sooner rather than later,” defence secretary January Masilela said in a statement.
Basson was acquitted in 2002 of multiple murders, drug-trafficking, fraud and theft after one of the longest trials in South African history.
Basson was accused of leading a series of poisoning plots targeting anti-apartheid activists and involving gadgets such as screwdrivers concealing hypodermic needles and cigarettes laced with anthrax.
Basson, a former brigadier general now working as a surgeon in Cape Town, said last year he had no regrets and suggested that accusations against him were misdirected and exaggerated.
”There is a large tendency to exaggerate whatever happened in the past … I am not ashamed of what I have done. I learned a lot and it was a great time in my life,” he said.
Discussing the ‘Basson issue’
Top brass in the military met on Tuesday to discuss reports that Basson was getting a monthly salary, despite being suspended.
”Management and the legal department are in a meeting. They are discussing the Wouter Basson issue,” SANDF spokesperson Major Vivian Petrus said on Tuesday.
”There will be more information on this issue by this afternoon [Tuesday].”
The meeting came a day after a media report that Basson was receiving a monthly salary of about R50 000 without doing any work as a heart surgeon.
While Basson’s court case, in which he faced 67 charges of apartheid-era crimes, was finalised more than 22 months ago, the SANDF reportedly had not taken any decision about his suspension or his career.
His salary amounted to about R1,1-million over the 22-month period.
If this salary was calculated over the full term of his suspension since 1999, it amounted to R4,35-million.
He was still officially in the position of chief surgeon at One Military Hospital in Thaba Tshwane without military patients benefiting from it.
Doctors and specialists in the South African Military Health Service said it was unacceptable that ”nobody” was actually the chief cardiologist while Basson was being paid. — Reuters, Sapa