the rollback of south africa's biological warfare program

some of the technical documents that had been found in Basson’s trunks.
Gould wanted an explanation of some of the pharmaceutical and medical
terminology. Orr was horrified by what she did understand, even though there
was much that she did not understand in the contents. One of the first
documents Dr. Orr examined was the infamous verkope lys (shopping or sales
list). 186 The senior TRC investigator, Villa-Vicencia, concluded that the trunks
contained a “mixed bag” that included memorabilia, as well as sensitive
technical information, which might prove embarrassing to foreign
governments, as well as information readily available in open source literature
(e.g., formulas for methaqualone and how to build a bomb). He felt that
collectively, these documents confirmed the idea that South Africa’s biological
weapons program had developed some very sophisticated processes and
procedures. 187
The beginning months of 1997 were the start of a period of
unprecedented public disclosures by South African newspapers. A wide range
of the government’s most sensitive information about past activities continued
to leak and be reported by the press throughout the TRC deliberations. Thus,
despite the fact that many Project Coast hearings were held behind closed
doors, the public heard much of this testimony in an almost daily stream of
revelations. Many of these articles revealed details about the scope of Project
Coast activities and efforts by past officials to use CBW against political
enemies.
During this period TRC investigators were discovering “pockets of secret
documents” that were supposed to be destroyed by former SAP, SADF
intelligence and prison authorities but had not been shredded. As TRC
investigators conducted spot checks of police stations in six different areas,
they found a wealth of information contained in residual documents that were
never destroyed. 188
The Project Coast hearings were scheduled to take place from 8 to 12
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