Naledi Pandor heads for Equatorial Guinea to seek release of jailed SA engineers

International Relations and Cooperation Minister Naledi Pandor will travel to Equatorial Guinea this weekend to try to persuade that country’s government to release the two South African oil engineers who have been detained there for nearly 15 months on apparently trumped-up charges.

Clayson Monyela, the spokesperson for Pandor’s department, confirmed to Daily Maverick that securing the release of Frederik (Frik) Potgieter and Peter Huxham would be the purpose of Pandor’s visit to the Central African state.

“The families are desperate for news on Frik and Peter and for their urgent release,” Francois Nigrini, a spokesperson for their families said on Wednesday night.

“It’s been over 14 months since they were illegally arrested and incarcerated in Equatorial Guinea. They are innocent and were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. We hope that Minister Pandor’s visit can secure their release and we are deeply grateful for all efforts to bring them home.”

The two men were arrested on 9 February 2023 and charged with drug trafficking. However, their families suspect the real reason was that two days before their arrest, South Africa had seized two luxury houses and a superyacht in Cape Town belonging to Equatorial Guinea’s extremely wealthy vice-president, Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue.

Read more in Daily Maverick: Anguished families believe ICJ case shows SA has power to get two engineers released from Equatorial Guinea

The seizure related to another case and had nothing to do with Potgieter and Huxham, which is why their families say they were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time.

“Frik and Peter are both highly experienced and professional engineers who were working for the Dutch company SBM Offshore in Equatorial Guinea at the time of their arrests,” Shaun Murphy, a spokesperson for the Potgieter family, said in February this year.

“Frik and Peter are hostages being held by a foreign power. These two men are in the situation that they are in because of an international dispute between South Africa and Equatorial Guinea.”

The two men were arrested at their hotel in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, the night before they were due to fly back to South Africa following a five-week work rotation.

At their trial in June 2023 they each received a 12-year sentence, a main fine of $5-million and additional fines to be shared between them, “for trumped-up drug offences”, Murphy said.

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“The sentence and fines are much higher than what the current Equatorial Guinea law allows. Their trial, marked by numerous irregularities, took place in June 2023.

“The sentence and fines were based on outdated penalties for the alleged crimes, indicating an unsettling departure from the country’s new Criminal Code. 

“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.” DM