Cape Town -
Apartheid-era chemical warfare expert Wouter Basson says he is “resilient as hell” and will take on the State if he has to in order to keep practising medicine.
This week he told Weekend Argus that he has “survived the State’s onslaught” for about 20 years and can withstand more.
Basson, 64, dubbed Dr Death, ran the South African Defence Force’s chemical and biological warfare programme about three decades ago.
He is now a practising cardiologist based in Durbanville.
In December, the Health Professions Council of South Africa’s (HPCSA) professional conduct committee found him guilty of unethical conduct – it found that in the 1980s he had been involved in the large-scale production of Mandrax, ecstasy and teargas, and had also made cyanide capsules available for specialised unit members to commit suicide.
On Wednesday, the committee will present its case in Pretoria about what sentence it believes Basson should be handed.
A number of organisations have called for him to be struck off the medical register, meaning he would no longer be able to practise.
This week, Basson said he would not be shocked if this sentence was suggested.
“We live in strange times in South Africa. I wouldn’t be surprised… Even though I didn’t hurt anyone and there’s no evidence that anyone suffered,” he said.
His team will get a chance to make representations next year.
Basson said if he did face being struck off the medical register, he would appeal.
“It’s my future. Of course I want to practise. I hope to carry on for 10 or 15 years. For as long as my brain lasts, I’ll carry on,” he said.
Basson said his private practice was “growing by the day”.
“I have many avenues left. I intend fighting this. I’ve been doing this for 20 years. Every single court in South Africa, I’ve been to.”
Eleven years ago in the Pretoria high court, Basson was acquitted of 46 criminal charges, including murder, fraud and drug offences.
The State tried to appeal against this, but the appeal was dismissed in both the Supreme Court of Appeal and the Constitutional Court.
The HPCSA started its inquiry into him in 2007.
Basson told Weekend Argus he had been fighting the State or government in various ways for many years.
“It’s now become a self-sustaining thing. It’s 21 years on and nobody knows why it’s carrying on.”
Basson said other doctors who had applied for amnesty via the Truth and Reconciliation Commission had admitted to injuring people.
“I didn’t even hurt anyone. There’s no evidence. Not even a blue mark.”
He said people often stop in the street and ask what he is doing these days but he does not encounter animosity from the public.
”They ask: ‘Are you okay?’ or “What are you doing?’. They have very general questions. I’m yet to be attacked by anybody.”
He said he was aware of a petition set up by the People’s Health Movement of South Africa, which wants him barred from practising medicine.
He said the group had never contacted him to hear his point of view, so he simply ignored them.
He said a number of people, who had not worked with him, nor spent time with him, had formed their opinions about him superficially.
He described himself as “plain, straightforward and not dashing”.
Basson said he had also managed to hold his own in the medical fraternity.
- Sunday Argus