South Africa dismantled apartheid-era biological weapons program

In 1994, the governments of the United Kingdom and the United States formally requested that South Africa dismantle Project Coast, a covert program that developed chemical and biological weapons during the apartheid era.

The program began under President PW Botha and Minister of Defence Magnus Malan, but President FW de Klerk also oversaw it before ordering its shutdown in 1990 along with the country’s nuclear weapons program.

De Klerk aimed to reintegrate South Africa into the international community, which had imposed boycotts and restrictions due to apartheid. South Africa signed the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention in 1972 and ratified it in 1975, but Project Coast secretly violated its terms. To remedy this, the government passed the Non-Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction Act in 1993, establishing a council to oversee weapons control.

Nelson Mandela and the African National Congress supported ending the program and embracing nuclear non-proliferation, despite some feeling the ANC should have taken more credit for the process. After becoming president in 1994, Mandela worked to restore South Africa’s membership in the United Nations. The country’s transition to democracy involved negotiating a settlement between the apartheid government and the ANC, requiring a balance between progress and avoiding a reaction from the security forces.

This complex period also laid the groundwork for future financial scandals, but Mandela and de Klerk ultimately received the Nobel Peace Prize for averting a potential racial conflict and choosing a political solution over military force.