AP photo by Themba Hadebe
Wouter Basson, the former head of apartheid's South Africa chemical and biological weapons program, smiles on hearing that he is aquitted on murder, conspiracy, fraud and drug possession charges in the Pretoria High Court Thursday April 11, 2002.
Dr. Death Surfaces Again By Jay DeLancy, 9.27.06
Hardly known in the U.S., South Africa’s “Dr. Death” has recently surfaced in the media again. But for some South Africans who now live in the U.S., they see forgiveness as a means to move forward.
“Dr. Death,” or Dr. Wouter Basson, refused to resign his post when acquitted of plotting to poison anti-apartheid activists, including Nelson Mandela.
The BBC recently reported that the cardiologist who also served as his nation’s apartheid-era biological weapon chief is still on the government payroll despite “horrific testimony” in the 1990s at Truth and Reconciliation Commission hearings.
The report found that he is still paid more than $6,800 a month although suspended from duty over the charges against him.
“He [Basson] did not just sit down one day and decide to poison everybody in sight, it was just part of his job,” said Julius Nyang’oro, Professor of African Studies at the University of North Carolina. “A lot of junk went on during apartheid.”
Apartheid was the political system in South Africa from 1948 to the early 1990s that kept most of the native African peoples in poverty. Those of European origin in South Africa however enjoyed the amenities of a fully developed economy.
Nyang’oro describes how the post-apartheid government applied forgiveness and what they hope to accomplish.
“In terms of the principle, it involved people facing up to what they did and using that as a catharsis for society,” he said. “And it was a good thing.”
Regarding the moral responsibility people have for their actions, Nyang’oro said the process did not absolve those who admitted to wrongdoing.
“But people have to move forward if it is possible,” he said. “If you retain too much anger and too much revenge, all you try to build or rebuild will become a failure.”
Inside Apartheid Government
Bobby Dixon, a white South African who grew up under that system never understood how his country operated. That is until he was activated for his mandatory two-year service in South Africa’s military.
“We watched some confiscated videos that had been taken by an overseas journalist and were horrified to see how the blacks used to kill other blacks who they believed were informants to the government,” Dixon said.
“They would chase them throwing stones at them [the victims] until they could not run anymore. Then they would stone them to death, or they would put a car tire around their necks filled with gas, set it alight and let the person burn to death,” he said.
Dixon never thought about the government as ‘apartheid’ because he always lived one way. He never saw how the others lived or the conditions that they lived in until he got older.
It wasn’t until President Reagan and the U.S. Congress passed and signed into law the anti-apartheid legislation that began the final chapter on that way of life.
“Apartheid as a system could not survive without support of various governments,” said Nyang’oro.
Still, he cautions against making big stories about people like Basson.
“If we split hairs about what happened, South Africa will not be able to move forward.”
