Cases from apartheid era resurface in South Africa

(The Christian Science Monitor) Joyce Ledwaba’s son Samuel was 17 years old when he disappeared from their Pretoria home in 1986. Although his body was never recovered, he is believed to have been tranquilized by South African security agents and then burned to death.

Three decades later, Ledwaba is still waiting for the man she believes is responsible to be punished. He is Wouter Basson, who ran a top-secret biological warfare program known as Project Coast, tasked with developing chemical and biological weapons for the apartheid government to eliminate its enemies covertly in the 1980s.

Nicknamed Dr. Death, Basson was never convicted of a single criminal offense. But over the last seven years he has been on trial to determine whether he should be banned from practicing medicine. Found guilty last year, he has yet to be sentenced.