Dr Wouter Basson, 75, the former head of the apartheid government’s secret chemical and biological warfare programme, will face four disciplinary charges brought by the Health Professions Council of SA (HPCSA), relating to “major scale” drug production and weaponisation, as well as cyanide suicide capsules, reports Daily Maverick.
Last week, Gauteng High Court Judge Irene de Vos dismissed the Cape Town cardiologist’s application for a permanent stay of proceedings by the HPCSA, noting that the charges were serious and “tip the scales against granting a permanent stay”. if found guilty, he will be struck from the medical register and not be able to attend to his thriving private practice in Cape Town, notes Legalbrief Today.
The HPCSA charges allege the production of substances including Mandrax, MDMA (Ecstasy) and tear gas on a major scale, the weaponisation of CR gas (an incapacitating agent) placed inside thousands of 120mm mortars used in Angola, having manufactured substances to tranquillise and kidnap captured prisoners of war in Namibia, as well as the distribution of cyanide capsules to members of special units for “suicidal use”.
Basson, who who was previously acquitted in the High Court on 67 charges of murder involving 229 people, conspiracy to murder, drug law transgressions and fraud, will have to explain his role, as a doctor, in concocting and distributing these drugs, toxins and deadly substances that allegedly resulted in mass deaths.
The court’s ruling comes as the Khampepe Commission into delayed TRC prosecutions continues to hear evidence of political interference and a ‘secret’ deal between apartheid-era generals and ANC top leadership. Basson, a Brigadier in the SADF, had testified at the TRC but refused to apply for amnesty. He was acquitted in 2002 by Judge Willie Hartzenberg in the last big apartheid-era trial.
In 2014, the HPCSA found Basson guilty of misconduct in that he had contravened international protocols and conventions, and that he could not rely on military orders to escape his duties as a doctor. Basson had argued he had “acted as a soldier”. He fought the finding, and in 2019 a court found in his favour.
LegalBrief Today article – D-Day for ‘Dr Death’ (Restricted access)
See more from MedicalBrief archives:
SAMA calls for expulsion of Wouter Basson from register
Wouter Basson accuses HPCSA of ‘persecution’
HPCSA will take yet another try at a disciplinary hearing into Basson