South Africa: Dr Delay - Apartheid-Era Chemical Weapons Head Wouter Basson to Face Disciplinary Hearing

7 April 2026
Daily Maverick (Johannesburg)
By Marianne Thamm

Teflon cardiologist Dr Wouter Basson, former head of the apartheid government's secret chemical and biological warfare programme, will face a Health Professions Council of South Africa disciplinary hearing.

Should the 75-year-old Dr Wouter Basson be found guilty in his Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA) disciplinary hearing, he will be struck from the medical register and will not be able to attend to his thriving private practice in Cape Town.

Basson is facing four charges related to 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 (POWs) in Namibia (then South West Africa) as well as the distribution of cyanide capsules to members of special units for "suicidal use".

North Gauteng High Court Judge Irene de Vos last week dismissed Basson's application for a permanent stay of proceedings by the HPCSA. She noted that the charges were serious and "tip the scales against granting a permanent stay".

Dr Teflon

The man who has escaped accountability for three decades since the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) and who was acquitted on 67 charges of murder involving 229 people, conspiracy to murder, drug law transgressions and fraud, will have to explain his role, as...

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