Considerable quantities of paraoxon, a highly toxic organophosphate that can be metabolized in the body naturally after exposure to the agricultural insecticide parathion, were produced under the auspices of Project Coast. This was done both at Delta G Scientific, the principal South African CW research and production facility, and at Roodeplaat Research Laboratories (RRL), the main BW research, testing, and production facility. Some of it was then added to cigarettes, tobacco, toiletries, alcohol, and clothes, and deployed to contaminate targeted enemies.

According to Dr. Johan Koekemoer, Delta G carried out some analyses on parathion for outside commercial groups, using reference substances purchased through normal channels. Some of the parathion and paraoxon analyzed at Delta G apparently ended up at RRL. Dr. Klaus Psotta, an organic chemist who had previously worked at Delta G, testified that he later transferred to RRL, synthesized paraoxon, and then tested its stability in cigarettes and alcohol. The results of these experiments were passed on to Dr. James Davies, who then added the substance to lip balm and tested its effects on rats, baboons, and dogs, whereas Kobus Niewenhuisen was tasked with adding it to roll-on deodorant and shampoo. The synthesis and toxicity testing of paraoxon are mentioned in the 1985 and 1986 lists of RRL's military projects (Basson Trial Exhibits 63R and 63S). Along with Dr. Mike Odendaal, who denied ever working on paraoxon, Davies was regularly involved in testing the effects of various poisonous substances by mixing them into drinks and foods. After producing these poisons and contaminated items, the two men handed them over to Dr. André Immelman, RRL's R&D director. Odendaal also regularly provided Immelman with instructions concerning dosages and safety precautions for handling the dangerous substances he made. Immelman then stored these and other lethal materials inside a refrigerator in a bombproof, fireproof walk-in safe in his office.

On the purported instructions of Project Officer Wouter Basson, Immelman later secretly transferred paraoxon and other highly toxic substances to military and police personnel through various channels. Some of these dangerous materials were provided to Dr. R. F. Botha (alternately known as "Koos", "Mr. R", and "Frans Brink") and thence to Vernon Lange (otherwise known as "Mr. T" and "Theo"), both of whom were operatives of the Civil Co-operation Bureau (CCB), a covert assassination unit operating under the aegis of the Special Forces (SF). Others were provided directly to Chris Smit, Gert Otto, and Manie van Staden, three Security Branch (SB) officers from the South African Police (SAP). According to the 1989 "sales list" (TRC document 52), as well as firsthand testimony at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission hearings or Basson's criminal trial, Immelman passed such items on, either to the aforementioned persons in innocuous public places like restaurants, or to Basson himself in the latter's office at South African Medical Services (SAMS) headquarters in Centurion. Another reported recipient of RRL's poisons was Johnny Koortzen, an ex-SADF psychologist who in 1988 assumed control over Systems Research and Development, a company that bioengineer Jan Lourens had set up in part to manufacture special "applicators," i.e., arcane assassination devices. Some of these toxic materials and devices were subsequently used to assassinate designated "enemies of the state" – guerrillas in neighboring countries, troublesome prisoners, untrustworthy members of the security forces, or activists in the African National Congress (ANC) and other South African opposition groups.

Among the items that appear on the "sales list" is 20 ml of paraoxon, which was listed as having been distributed by Immelman to Chris Smit and his two fellow SB officers. In the course of handing it over to them, Immelman gave them instructions about how best to apply it to clothing: the poison should be spread over the widest possible area on garments, and the most sensitive areas for absorption would be the scrotum and eyelids, making underwear, a shirt collar, or a pants waistband the ideal loci. He also testified that one of the many advantages of using paraoxon was that if it was detected post-mortem, the death could be attributed to accidental parathion contamination. Shortly thereafter, the three policemen were apparently involved in a covert attempt to poison the Reverend Frank Chikane, an anti-apartheid activist who was then Secretary of the South African Council of Churches. Chikane soon became desperately ill and nearly died, and the American experts who treated him and investigated his case concluded that he had been the victim of organophosphate poisoning.

Basson and his associates later stated that paraoxon and other lethal substances had been tested and added to various items for training purposes so that countermeasures could be devised. These claims cannot be accepted at face value, however, especially given the South African penchant for using toxic substances to murder or sicken proclaimed enemies. For example, under the rubric of "Operation Dual," a clandestine program initiated by the South African Defence Force (SADF) in 1979, chemical agents were regularly used to secretly eliminate prisoners and security risks. According to Johan Theron, the SADF's chief executioner, this program was sanctioned from the outset by General Fritz Loots, the first commander of the fledgling SF. With the establishment of the Teen-Rewolusionêre Inligting Taakspan (TREWITS: Counter-Revolutionary Intelligence Task Force) in the mid-1980s, the "Dual" assassination program was later expanded and coordinated at an even higher level. Moreover, Dr. Schalk van Rensburg, former head of the Animal Research Centre at RRL, subsequently testified that lacing the clothing of particular targets with organophosphates like paraoxon or one of the nerve agents had become the "standard way to get rid of these fellows." Although Chikane may have been among the most prominent of the victims, he was hardly unique.

In 1990 President F. W. De Klerk prohibited the carrying out of any further work on lethal CBW agents, and in 1993 Project Coast was officially terminated. The stocks of standard CW agents produced by South Africa were supposedly destroyed in conformity with international agreements, despite the fact that the actual destruction process was never independently verified. Although several chemical plants there continue to produce highly toxic substances for normal industrial and agricultural use, none of these substances appear to be intended for deployment as lethal anti-personnel agents. The current government still has access to the type of technical expertise and the sort of sophisticated R&D facilities that would enable it to initiate a new CW program, but there is little reason to suppose that it has any interest in doing so.

	Updated March 2004