Small quantities of Yersinia pestis (or possibly only Yersinia enterocolitica)—the bacterium that causes the disease plague—were produced at the principal South African BW research, testing, and production facility, Roodeplaat Research Laboratories (RRL), under the auspices of Project Coast. There is no evidence that plague was ever deployed as a weapon.

Dr. Mike Odendaal, a researcher at RRL, played a major role in a project to freeze-dry various pathogens, including Yersinia enterocolitica, in larger than normal quantities (Project R47). After producing these organisms, he gave them to Dr. André Immelman, RRL's R&D director. He 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 bomb-proof, fireproof walk-in safe in his office.

On the purported instructions of Project Officer Wouter Basson, Immelman later secretly transferred a number of 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. However, plague bacteria do not appear to be among the BW agents that were used to harm anyone.

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 several laboratories there still produce highly toxic substances for normal industrial, veterinary, or agricultural use, none of these substances appear to be intended for deployment as lethal anti-personnel agents. 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 2004