BBC News Published image captionWouter Basson has worked as a cardiologist in Cape Town since 2005 A private hospital group in South Africa has defended itself amid an uproar that the man dubbed "Dr Death" practises from two of its clinics. Mediclinic said it could not stop Wouter Basson from practising as he was a registered doctor. The cardiologist headed an apartheid-era secret germ warfare programme. He has faced down numerous legal challenges over his work to produce drugs and agents to target anti-apartheid activists. The 70-year-old's defence has been that he acted under orders of the South African Defence Force (SADF). The state has been paying all his legal fees over the years as he was a government employee at the time he ran "Project Coast" in the 1980s.