Apartheid regime had planned to damage Mandela8217;s brain

Schalk Van Rensburg, a veterinarian who worked at the apartheid government8217;s Roodeplast Research Laboratory near Pretoria in the 1980s, said yesterday, he had discussed Mandela8217;s impending release with his superior 8211; research director Andre Immelman. Immelman had told him not to worry quot;because his Mandela8217;s brain will deteriorate in time,quot; Van Rensburg testified.

He said that he understood the comment to mean that the intention was to quot;reduce the level of Mandela8217;s effectiveness by inducing actual brain damagequot;. Immelman said he later read a newspaper articlethat claimed that military operatives had planned to poison Mandela slowly by putting thallium, a metallic element used in rat poison, in his medication. He said he had no idea whether this was ever done. Mandela was released in 1990 after 27 years in apartheid jails. The government document, drawn up four years earlier by the all-powerful State Security Council SSC, examined various options for Mandela8217;s release, including that he be freed outside the country8217;s borders and in a weakened state. quot;The possibility that his health can weaken to the point where he will only be leader of the revolution for a short time, should not be discounted,quot; the document said.

Van Rensburg argued that this was a reference to an active plan to weaken Mandela8217;s health, but lawyers for former Roodeplaat, MD,Wynand Swanepoel said it was a reference to delay Mandela8217;s release until his health deteriorated naturally. The SSC was set up by former president P W Botha and comprised of top security officials, the police and thedefence ministers.