Dr Wouter Basson was yesterday found guilty of unprofessional conduct in his work for the apartheid regime's chemical and biological warfare programme.
He will find out early next year whether he may continue to practise as a doctor.
After a six-year inquiry, the Health Professions' Council of SA found that Basson had used his medical expertise to harm instead of to save lives when he developed toxins and mortar shells charged with teargas in the 1980s.
The chairman of the council's professional conduct committee, Jannie Hugo, rubbished Basson's argument that he had acted as a soldier and not as a doctor.
He said it was "dangerous for a doctor to switch roles between being a doctor and being a soldier" while using the skills of a doctor.
Hugo said a doctor could not simply rely on orders from military officers to escape the consequences of his actions. He said Basson should have ended his registration with the council if he wanted to pursue his military ambitions.
Basson headed the covert chemical and biological warfare programme, Project Coast. He established the secret laboratory Delta-G at which incapacitating drugs and teargas were manufactured.
In 2002, the Pretoria High Court acquitted the 63-year-old cardiologist of 46 charges, including murder, conspiracy to commit murder, fraud and drug offences.
The council's committee relied on transcripts of Basson's high court evidence in which he admitted to providing tranquillisers to the defence force for cross-border kidnappings and giving operatives cyanide suicide capsules.
Speaking to Radio 702, Basson said he accepted the verdict but did not agree with it because there was no proof that anyone had been harmed by the chemicals.
"What we developed was harmless ... there was no intention to harm but it was to stop people from annihilating themselves," he said.
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