Small quantities of botulinum toxin were produced at the principal South African BW research, testing, and production facility, Roodeplaat Research Laboratories (RRL), under the auspices of Project Coast. Some of this botulinum was then added to drinks and candy, and may have ended up being consumed by targeted enemies. Much larger quantities were produced at other facilities, such as the Onderstepoort Veterinary Institute, apparently for purposes unrelated to the BW program.

Dr. Mike Odendaal, a researcher at RRL, produced all four types of Clostridium botulinum, one of the most toxic substances on earth: A and B which affect people and C and D which affect animals. He and a technician produced Type A botulinum toxin in a number of 5ml glass freeze-dried vials, and tested its toxicity on mice after it had been mixed with various liquids. He discovered that water, milk, beer, and wine worked well, but that flocculant was visible when botulinum toxin was added to hard liquors like whiskey and gin. Both Odendaal and Dr. James Davies contaminated beers and chocolates with botulinum toxin. After producing these organisms or contaminated items, they handed them over to Dr. André Immelman, RRL's R&D director. Odendaal also regularly provided Immelman with instructions concerning dosages and safety precautions for handling the dangerous substances he made. Immelman then stored these and other lethal materials inside a refrigerator in a bombproof, fireproof walk-in safe in his office.

On the purported instructions of Project Officer Wouter Basson, Immelman later secretly transferred botulinum toxin and other highly toxic substances to military and police personnel through various channels. Some of these dangerous materials were provided to Dr. R. F. Botha (alternately known as "Koos", "Mr. R", and "Frans Brink") and thence to Vernon Lange (otherwise known as "Mr. T" and "Theo"), both of whom were operatives of the Civil Co-operation Bureau (CCB), a covert assassination unit operating under the aegis of the Special Forces (SF). Others were provided directly to Chris Smit, Gert Otto, and Manie van Staden, three Security Branch (SB) officers from the South African Police (SAP). According to the 1989 "sales list" (TRC document 52), as well as firsthand testimony at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission hearings or Basson's criminal trial, Immelman passed such items on, either to the aforementioned persons in innocuous public places like restaurants, or to Basson himself in the latter's office at South African Medical Services (SAMS) headquarters in Centurion. Another reported recipient of RRL's poisons was Johnny Koortzen, an ex-South African Defence Force (SADF) psychologist who in 1988 assumed control over Systems Research and Development, a company that bioengineer Jan Lourens had set up in part to manufacture special "applicators," i.e., arcane assassination devices. Some of these toxic materials and devices were subsequently used to assassinate designated "enemies of the state" – guerrillas in neighboring countries, troublesome prisoners, untrustworthy members of the security forces, or activists in the African National Congress (ANC) and other South African opposition groups.

Among the items that appear on the "sales list" are coffee-flavored chocolates that had been contaminated with botulinum toxin by RRL scientists and were thence distributed by Immelman to Chris Smit. Later, Immelman also testified that he gave several containers of beer laced with botulinum toxin to Basson on 21 June 1989. On at least that occasion, the deadly toxin appears to have actually been used to murder a high profile opponent of the apartheid regime. Earlier that month General A. J. Nel, head of the Division of Military Intelligence's Directorate of Covert Collection, had ordered his subordinate Colonel J. A. Nieuwoudt to kill ANC Swaziland operative Knox Dhlamini. Nieuwoudt obtained six cans of Dhlamini's favorite beer and handed them over to Dr. James Davies at RRL, who bored tiny holes into the cans and inserted botulinum into them. Four of those contaminated cans, along with two laced with thallium, were then delivered via Immelman, Basson, and others to an operative close to Dhlamini. After drinking the beer, Dhlamini became ill, was admitted to the hospital, and died. There is no evidence indicating that botulinum toxin was used to poison anyone else, but this is certainly possible given the South African penchant for using toxic substances to murder or sicken proclaimed enemies. For example, under the rubric of "Operation Dual," a clandestine program initiated by the SADF in 1979, toxic agents were regularly used by the D[elta]40 and Barnacle units – the CCB's predecessors – to secretly eliminate prisoners and security risks. According to Johan Theron, the SADF's chief executioner, this program was sanctioned from the outset by General Fritz Loots, the first commander of the fledgling SF. With the establishment of the Teen-Rewolusionêre Inligting Taakspan (TREWITS: Counter-Revolutionary Intelligence Task Force) in the mid-1980s, the "Dual" assassination program was later expanded and coordinated at an even higher level.

In 1990 President F. W. De Klerk prohibited the carrying out of any further work on lethal CBW agents, and in 1993 Project Coast was officially terminated. The stocks of BW agents produced by South Africa were supposedly destroyed in conformity with international agreements, despite the fact that the actual destruction process was never independently verified and there is evidence that some of the substances were removed and retained by Coast scientists. Although various facilities in the country still produce botulinum toxin, it is apparently no longer intended for deployment as a lethal anti-personnel agent. The current government still has access to the type of technical expertise and the sort of sophisticated R&D facilities that would enable it to initiate a new BW program, but there is little reason to suppose that it has any interest in doing so.

	Updated February 2006