Small quantities of paraquat, a commercial herbicide that can cause kidney and liver failure and fatal lung damage in doses of 10-15 ml, were apparently produced under the auspices of Project Coast. This was probably done either at Delta G Scientific, the principal South African CW research and production facility, or at Roodeplaat Research Laboratories (RRL), the main BW research, testing, and production facility. Some of this paraquat was then added to beverages, and may have ended up being consumed by targeted enemies.

According to Dr. Johan Koekemoer, Delta G carried out some analysis of both paraquat and parathion for outside groups, supposedly for commercial purposes. Although Koekemoer did not know whether Project Officer Wouter Basson or scientists at RRL ever obtained such compounds from Delta G, Dr. James Davies of RRL later admitted that he had personally added quantities of paraquat to whiskey. Both Davies and his colleague Dr. Mike Odendaal testified that they had been involved in testing the effects of various poisonous substances at the latter facility. After producing such substances and various contaminated items, the two men normally 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 Basson, Immelman later secretly transferred 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 whiskey with 75 ml of paraquat, which was listed as having been distributed by Immelman to Chris Smit and his SB associates. Basson later claimed that this concoction and other contaminated items were prepared for research and training purposes at institutions outside RRL, where they were sent for additional testing, but this assertion cannot be accepted at face value given the South African penchant for using toxic substances to murder or sicken designated enemies. For example, under the rubric of "Operation Dual," a clandestine program initiated by the SADF in 1979, chemical 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. However, there is no evidence that this paraquat-laced whiskey was actually used to poison 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 standard CW 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. Although several chemical plants there continue to produce highly toxic substances for normal industrial and 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 CW program, but there is little reason to suppose that it has any interest in doing so.

	Updated March 2004