Other Names: None
Location: At Phillippi on the Cape Flats, 25km from Cape Town
Subordinate to: ARMSCOR, the South African state armaments corporation (later renamed Denel)
Size: Swartklip Products is a medium-sized research, development, and production firm consisting of several buildings
Primary Function: Swartklip is a subsidiary of ARMSCOR that, after first conducting extensive pyrotechnical tests, weaponized the CR and CS irritating Riot Control Agents made at the principal CW facility, Delta G Scientific

Description:
Swartklip is a medium-sized R&D and production facility specializing in pyrotechnics. It was founded in 1948 as a commercial fireworks producer and has since become a full-fledged ARMSCOR/Denel subsidiary that makes a diverse range of state-of-the-art pyrotechnical products and ammunition for both the South African Defence Force and export markets. As a result of the 1977 arms embargo imposed on South Africa, the company was forced to provide items and technologies that could no longer be imported, particularly in the pyrotechnical field, where the purity and form of chemicals is vitally important. Virtually all of its products were developed originally for military applications and then adapted for commercial use.
In the period between 1986 and 1993, Swartklip was responsible for testing and weaponizing certain substances produced by Delta G, in particular the Riot Control Agents CS and CR. Dr. Johan Koekemoer of Delta G worked together with Floris Laubscher of Swartklip to analyze and develop pyrotechnical products that could be loaded into effective delivery systems. For example, Delta G's CR powder was loaded into 11,966 hand grenades, rifle grenades, 81mm mortar rounds, and 1373 155mm shells for South Africa's renowned G5 artillery piece. This top secret weaponization project, which was ordered for ARMSCOR and known successively as "Newly," "Keyboard," and "Cargo," did not include BZ, methaqualone, or amphetamines – at least not up to the prototype stage. Large quantities of CR made at Delta G were shipped at regular intervals from 91 Ammunition Depot at Naboomspruit, in the Northern Province, down to Swartklip's factory. In contrast to pyrotechnical tests of all types, pyrolytic tests could not be done at Swartklip, so Enslin Smit compressed CR into tablets and arranged for these tests to be conducted elsewhere. Such pyrolytic tests were so sophisticated that it was supposedly necessary to buy equipment from the East Germans and Libyans in 1985, at a cost of 5.5 million rand. In 1997, pursuant to the terms of the Chemical Weapons Convention ratified by the South African government, CR was removed from the G5 projectiles and replaced with smoke.

Today Swartklip Products is recognized as a "leader in the pyrotechnics field," and its products – rifle and hand grenades, red phosphorous smoke technology, radar-screening devices, 155mm shell cargo rounds, infra-red technology, anti-riot items, and 40mm cartridges – are in high demand throughout the world. Instead of simply manufacturing individual items, it undertakes the design, development, and production of several complete weapons systems. This necessitates working closely with other research institutions and universities, and the company has also established an extensive network of suppliers in the Western Cape.

Key Sources:
Centre for Conflict Resolution, Basson Trial: Weekly Summaries of Court Proceedings, October 1999-April 2002, especially the testimony of Laubscher and Roelf Louw; "High-Tech Pyrotechnics," [Johannesburg] Engineering Week (1989), p. 20; Truth and Reconciliation Commission of South Africa, Hearings, June-July 1998, especially the testimony of Koekemoer.

	Updated March 2004