Equatorial Guinea’s president wants his son’s properties back before releasing Frik Potgieter and Peter Huxham, but the villas were seized in execution of a court order.
Two South African oil engineers who have been imprisoned in Equatorial Guinea for 17 months won’t be released until South Africa returns two Cape Town houses which a South African court ordered to be seized from Equatorial Guinea’s vice-president last year.
That was the blunt message that Equatorial Guinea’s President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo delivered to the then international relations and cooperation minister, Naledi Pandor, in May, say sources.
The houses in Bishopscourt and Clifton, which were owned by Equatorial Guinea’s Vice-President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mangue, are worth tens of millions of rands though they are steadily falling into disrepair.
Frik Potgieter, a South African and Peter Huxham, a dual South African-British national, were working in Equatorial Guinea when they were arrested on 9 February 2023 on what they and the United Nations have said were trumped-up charges of drug trafficking.
In June 2023 they were convicted and each sentenced to 12 years in prison as well as receiving large fines.
Their families are convinced that the real reason for the country’s action against them was that just two days before their arrests, a South African court had ordered the seizure of a luxury superyacht belonging to Vice-President Obiang. Earlier, a court had ordered the seizure of Obiang’s two luxury Cape Town villas.
The yacht was later released, but the two houses remain attached.
Read more: Families of two South Africans jailed in Equatorial Guinea launch ‘Free Frik and Peter’ campaign
The court ordered the seizure of the properties so they could be liquidated to realise money to pay damages which a court awarded to another South African, Daniel van Rensburg, who was imprisoned in Equatorial Guinea in 2011 after a joint airline venture with a member of the Obiang family went sour.
Van Rensburg spent almost 500 days in the notoriously harsh Black Beach Prison. He claimed and won almost R40-million in damages from Vice-President Obiang whom he said had ordered his private security forces to arrest him.
Diplomatic stalemate
The South African government has taken up the case of Potgieter and Huxham with the Equatorial Guinean government, but so far to no avail.
In May, Pandor visited Equatorial Guinea and met her counterpart, Simeón Oyono Esono Angüe, and President Obiang.
“Minister Pandor took advantage of her presence in Equatorial Guinea to raise with the authorities South Africa’s concerns regarding the incarceration of two South African citizens in the country,” said her department.
“The minister reiterated South Africa’s plea to the government of Equatorial Guinea for the release of the incarcerated South African citizens. Engagements on this matter are continuing.”
However, Daily Maverick understands that President Obiang told Pandor bluntly that Potgieter and Huxham would not be released until the South African government returned the Clifton and Bishopscourt houses to his son, the vice-president.
This puts South Africa in a difficult position as the properties were seized in the execution of a court order, which appears to put the solution sought by President Obiang beyond Pretoria’s control.
Arbitrary detention
Earlier this month, the United Nations (UN) Working Group on Arbitrary Detention issued a Formal Opinion that the incarceration of Potgieter and Huxham was arbitrary and illegal and called for their immediate release.
The UN group said: “The deprivation of liberty of Mr Huxham and Mr Potgieter is arbitrary in that it is contrary to Articles 3, 9, 10 and 11 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Articles 9, 14 and 15 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and falls within categories I and III.”
Equatorial Guinea has signed both of these instruments.
The UN group’s opinion was that the two engineers were innocent of the drug charges which Equatorial Guinea brought against them in February 2023 and that their continuing detention was a grave violation of various international human rights conventions.
Dirco did not respond to a request on Monday for an update on the progress of the diplomatic efforts to secure the release of Potgieter and Huxham.