Project Coast  Project Coast was a 1980s top-secret chemical and biological weapons (CBW) program instituted by the apartheid-era government of South Africa. Project Coast was the successor to a limited post-war CBW program which mainly produced the lethal agents CX powder and mustard gas; as well as non-lethal tear gas for riot control purposes. The program was headed by Wouter Basson, a cardiologist who was the personal physician of the then South African Prime Minister P. W. Botha. From 1975 onwards, the South African Defence Force (SADF) found itself embroiled in conventional battles in Angola as a result of the South African Border War. The perception that its enemies had access to battlefield chemical and biological weapons led South Africa to begin expanding its own programme, initially as a defensive measure and to carry out research on vaccines. As the years went on, research was carried out into offensive uses of the newly found capability. Finally, in 1981, then-president P. W. Botha ordered the SADF to develop the technology so that it could be used effectively against South Africa's enemies. In response, the head of the SADF's South African Medical Service (SAMS) division, responsible for defensive CBW capabilities, hired Dr Wouter Basson, a cardiologist, to visit other countries and report back on their respective CBW capabilities. He returned with the recommendation that South Africa's program be expanded, and in 1983, Project Coast was formed, with Dr Basson at its head. To hide the program, and to make the procurement of CBW-related substances, Project Coast involved the formation of four front companies: Delta G Scientific Company, Roodeplaat Research Laboratories (RRL), Protechnik and Infladel. Progressively, Project Coast created a large variety of lethal offensive CBW toxins and biotoxins, in addition to the defensive measures. Initially, these were intended for use by the military in combat as a last resort. To this end Soviet techniques were being copied, and devices designed that looked like ordinary objects but had the capabilities to poison those targeted for assassination. Examples included umbrellas and walking sticks which fired pellets containing poison, syringes disguised as screwdrivers, and poisoned beer cans and envelopes. In the early 1990s, with the end of apartheid, South Africa's various weapons of mass destruction programs were stopped. Despite efforts to destroy equipment, stocks, and information from these programs, some still remain. This has led to fears that they may find their way into the hands of terrorist networks.