[imagesource:Jolene Potgieter/Facebook]

Two unfortunate South African engineers have been imprisoned in Equatorial Guinea for more than a year since their shocking arrest on Thursday, February 9.

Frederic Potgieter (53) from George and Peter Huxham (55) from Langebaan were arrested on drug-trafficking charges in February 2023, days after a South African court ordered the seizure of a yacht belonging to the cut-throat Equatorial Guinean Vice President Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue. The two incidents are linked, Bloomberg reported.

International Relations and Cooperation Minister Naledi Pandor, who was on an official visit to the Central African nation, “took advantage of her presence in Equatorial Guinea to raise with the authorities South Africa’s concerns” over the detention, the department said in a statement.

“The minister reiterated South Africa’s plea to the government of Equatorial Guinea for the release of the incarcerated South African citizens.”

According to reports, the men have been sentenced to 12 years in prison. They were initially detained in the notorious Black Beach prison, the same prison where South African businessman, Daniel Janse van Rensburg, spent 400 days after he was illegally detained. They were then later moved to a political prison in Mongomo, in the east of the country.

Huxham and Potgieter’s loved ones at home insist they are innocent. They believe that these men only find themselves in the situation because of an international dispute between South Africa and Equatorial Guinea.

The two men had been working for many years as engineers for a Dutch oil and gas company, Single Buoy Mooring (SBM), and were due to return home the day after they were arrested, on February 9 last year.

Image: Facebook

Huxham and Potgieter’s arrests were made days after the high court in Cape Town authorised the attachment of an R300 million superyacht, Blue Shadow, sitting at the V&A Waterfront in Cape Town and owned by Equatorial Guinea’s vice-president, also the son of the president, Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo. The yacht was being seized as part of a crackdown on the “Playboy” VP after a years-long legal battle involving Daniel, who was unlawfully arrested after a business deal gone wrong and sent to the central African country’s notorious Black Beach prison in 2013 and 2014, emerging “permanently physically impaired and psychologically shattered”.

Emma Louise Powell, the DA’s shadow minister for international relations, says the DA welcomes the news that Dirco is finally acting to secure Huxham and Potgieter’s release, per R News.

Powell says the “court case” held in Equatorial Guinea in June 2023 was a hoax. “There was no credible evidence by the public prosecutor. Moreover, Potgieter and Huxham did not have the opportunity to present their case.”

A press statement issued by both families said the June 2023 trial of Potgieter and Huxham was marked by numerous irregularities:

“No witnesses or expert opinions were presented to the court by the prosecutor, nor was any proof presented that the alleged drugs were found on the two men, and further, the nature of the alleged drugs was not tested, or conclusively proven,” the statement says.

In addition to the 12-year prison sentence, the two men were also ordered to each pay a fine of $5 million (more than R93 million).

“Potgieter and Huxham’s illegal detention is a clear violation of human rights by the government of Equatorial Guinea,” adds Powell.

Pandor was set to visit the country on May 4 to negotiate with the government about the two men’s release. No word has been released about how that went yet.

[source:bloomberg]