Other Names: None
Location: Special Forces headquarters at the Voortrekkerhoogte in Pretoria
Subordinate to: Special Forces (SF)
Size: The SF testing facilities at Speskop were housed in a small laboratory complex
Primary Function: The Speskop labs carried out pre-production weaponization research and testing for chemical incapacitants, especially pyrotechnical testing, and possibly also research on various toxic CBW agents and mood-altering peptides

Description:
The SF labs at Speskop were used to conduct pre-production weaponization research on various chemical incapacitants used for crowd control, such as CS and CR, as well as research on lethal CBW agents and—if Coast's Project Officer Wouter Basson can be believed—bioregulatory peptides. Originally there were two small ground floor laboratories at that locale, A and B, but the wall between them was then demolished in order to accommodate larger-scale CR production, after which the lab was apparently known as Block C. Moderate quantities of the Riot Control Agents CS and CR were manufactured there prior to the establishment of Delta G Scientific at Midrand, and thereafter it was used primarily for aerosol testing. According to Basson, the drug encapsulation machine later operated by Steven Beukes at the Delta G component located in the basement of Medchem Pharmaceuticals had originally been housed at the Speskop labs. After a fire destroyed the original Block C sometime in the mid-1980s, a newer and more modern lab complex was constructed on the site and used to manufacture and test pyrotechnic mixtures, including BZ and methaqualone, which were intended for weaponization in mortars and other delivery systems. Between 1988 and 1992, thousands of such pyrotechnical tests were allegedly carried out inside the labs, and hundreds more may have been conducted in a field in front of the buildings. Basson also admitted that the labs at Speskop had been used to test five cigarettes that had been laced with anthrax for "research" purposes at Roodeplaat Research Laboratories; the aim was to determine up to what temperature the anthrax spores could survive, which turned out to be 180 degrees centigrade. Finally, he claimed that beginning in 1988, sophisticated peptide research was carried out there by himself and two assistants, Hekkies van Heerden and Bill Grieve.

Despite the provision of fairly detailed testimony by Basson, the precise nature of the research and testing that was conducted at SF headquarters is still somewhat unclear, not to mention undocumented. This is because Basson may have concocted several tall tales in an effort to account for the expenditure of missing Coast-related funds that might have actually been diverted for personal use. For example, he said that in order to rebuild the fire-gutted laboratories at Speskop and continue pyrotechnical testing and weaponization, it had been necessary to obtain an array of sophisticated laboratory equipment overseas through a variety of shady middlemen, including alleged Libyan intelligence officer 'Abd al-Razaq, businessman Dieter Drier, and former British intelligence officer Roger Buffham. He stated that reactor glass, chemicals, mechanical devices, proximity fuses, chemical agent monitors (CAMs), incubators, microtomes, homogenizers, flasks for tissue cultures, and a peptide synthesizer were all obtained secretly from these suppliers, and insisted that members of the Co-ordinating Management Committee knew all about these activities. He testified that before being destroyed the relevant documentation was secretly recorded onto the CD-ROM filled with Coast-related materials, and that he personally oversaw the destruction of the equipment at Speskop when Project Coast was shut down. Alas, many of Basson's claims concerning the nature of the tests that were supposedly carried out at the SF labs remain to be confirmed. The precise nature of the relationship between these particular labs and those earlier operated at SF headquarters by the Elektroniks, Meganies, Landbou en Chemies (EMLC: Electronic, Mechanical, Agricultural and Chemical) firm is likewise unclear.

Key Sources: Centre for Conflict Resolution, Basson Trial: Weekly Summaries of Court Proceedings, October 1999-April 2002, especially the testimony of Basson, Knobel, Laubscher, Jan Lourens, May, Meyer, Mijburgh, Morgan, and Van Jaarsveld.

	Updated February 2004