Well, we haven‘t really had a chance to discuss politics lately, now have we? No.
This leads me to address the South African Nuclear Programme and it‘s sinister cousin, Project Coast. South Africa is the only country in the world to have abandoned a Nuclear Weapons programme that they had developed independently. The programme was begun with the aid of Israeli Nuclear physicists during the late 60s, and established proper in the mid-70s. The motivation for nuclear weapons procurement was because the South Africans were, at the time, engaged in a proxy war with Cuba; in Angola. The South African government feared that the communists would win in Angola (which they did), and continue domino-effect styles through Namibia and into the Apartheid apparatus itself. And thus the government developed, and tested, their weapons throughout the 70s and 80s. France was a notable critic; warning that diplomatic relations would be compromised. Upon the advent of the anti-apartheid political strength of the ANC (African National Congress), championed by the notorious Nelson Mandela, the South Africans signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and began to dismantle their programme. It was stated at the time that this was to provide South Africa with better international relations. However, it transpires that the South Africans (and their allies) were afraid that an ANC-controlled South Africa would continue to ally themselves with the likes of Gaddafi and other nominally socialist regimes that were a perceived threat to Western interests (i.e. “can‘t trust those blacks with nukes“).
During the development of the nuclear weapons programme, though, South Africa also routinely developed a chemical and biological weapons programme too. This was believed to be, in addition to the nuclear warheads, as a means of defence against foreign threats (again, namely the Cuban-sponsored communist and socialist revolutions in the region). This programme was named Project Coast. On the surface, nothing about this endeavour seemed to differ from other chemical weaponry developments around the world. However, upon the end of apartheid and the installation of the aforementioned ANC-controlled government; it was revealed that the programme was in fact unique and differed significantly, and bizarrely, from anything in the world up until that point. That is, the South African government had also developed a chemical weapons arsenal to use against its own people. It could easily be assumed that these domestic threats were the non-white population and their sympathisers. The story gets interesting, though, when you look at the types of chemicals used in these tear-gas type weapons: They included MDMA, cocaine, ketamine, methamphetamines, diazepam (as in valium) and a host of others that we commonly know as hardcore (or recreational) drugs. Utter insanity. I mean, they must have resolved that if the blacks started to revolt, that the revolution was going to turn out like some kind of drug-addled festival of sorts and everyone would have been off their face. Imagine that, eh? The whole country tripping balls whilst staging a coup? I know these types of drugs (as weapons and such) have been around for decades prior, but it is certainly unique for a country to develop this kind of shit for their own people. Crazy raw.
Like this:
Like Loading...
