The South African government has intensified diplomatic pressure on Equatorial Guinea over two South Africans who have been imprisoned in that country for more than 500 days on what are widely believed to be trumped-up drug charges.
Last week, Pretoria summoned the country’s ambassador and SA’s ambassador to Equatorial Guinea met the country’s foreign minister to complain about the restricted access to Frik Potgieter and Peter Huxham, which Equatorial Guinea has granted to SA officials and the families of the two men.
The diplomatic action was revealed on Monday, 26 August 2024 after Parliament’s portfolio committee on international relations and cooperation had decided last Wednesday to summon International Relations and Cooperation Minister Ronald Lamola to explain what his government was doing to free the two men.
“South Africa is deeply concerned about the ongoing detention of its citizens, Mr Peter Huxham and Mr Frik Potigeter, in Equatorial Guinea,” Lamola’s spokesperson Chrispin Phiri said at a press conference in Pretoria on Monday.
“Last Tuesday, our ambassador to Equatorial Guinea, Ambassador Nolufefe Dwabayo, met with the minister of foreign affairs in Malabo to address these concerns, emphasising the restricted access granted to our officials and the families of the detained individuals.
“Simultaneously, our acting deputy director general for Africa summoned the ambassador of Equatorial Guinea to South Africa, and he reiterated our concerns and handed over a note verbale. The ambassador of Equatorial Guinea undertook to convey South Africa’s concerns to his government.”
“South Africa is continuing in its pursuit of a solution with the government of Equatorial Guinea,” Phiri added.
Read more: Equatorial Guinea won’t release two South Africans until vice-president gets Cape Town villas back
Potgieter and Huxham, working as engineers for a global company in Equatorial Guinea’s oil industry, were arrested in February 2023 and charged with possession of drugs.
In June, they were both convicted of the charges and each sentenced to 12 years in jail, plus individual fines of $5-million each and other collective fines. Their families say the drug charges were fabricated and that the real reason for their arrests and convictions was to retaliate against South Africa.
Just two days before their arrests, a South African court had ordered the seizure of a luxury super yacht belonging to Equatorial Guinea Vice-President Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue.
Shortly before that, the court had also seized Obiang’s luxury Cape Town villas in Clifton and Bishops Court. These assets were impounded following a court ruling in South Africa on a separate matter against Obiang, completely unrelated to Potgieter and Huxham.
Obiang has insisted on social media that the legal action against the men has nothing to do with him and that the accusations against him are racist.
However, the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention issued a formal opinion on 1 July 2024, declaring Potgieter and Huxham’s arrests and continued detention illegal and calling for their immediate release.
Dubai recall
Phiri also confirmed that Pretoria had recalled its consul-general to Dubai, Andrew Tsepo Lebona, to explain accusations by whistle-blowers that he had been fraudulently issuing visas for his own profit.
Phiri said that Dirco, acting on information from whistle-blowers about alleged security breaches and misconduct, had recalled Lebona from Dubai to Pretoria to respond to the preliminary investigation findings.
“The investigation is still ongoing,” he said.
The Sunday Times reported this week that Lebona had been conducting an elaborate scam by bypassing official channels to personally issue visas to Emirati citizens, pocketing the fees himself. It said Lebona had orchestrated burglaries of the consulate-general to steal documents to advance his visa racket and had fraudulently persuaded the UAE government to grant a diplomatic visa to his son.
Phiri was asked if Dirco was facing a widespread problem of the fraudulent issuing of visas by its officials stationed abroad. It was noted that a Dirco official based in the embassy in Tunis had recently been criticised by Home Affairs for irregularly issuing visas to 95 Libyans to visit South Africa illegally to receive military training.
Read more: Libyans who received military training in SA deported to Benghazi as civil war looms
Phiri said that Home Affairs Minister Leon Schreiber had explained to Parliament that the best way to improve the visa regime was to eliminate human interference as much as possible and issue visas online.
Ukraine
Phiri was also asked if South Africa would continue to participate in Ukraine’s peace process. He noted that National Security Adviser Sydney Mufamadi and Dirco Director-General Zane Dangor had been participating in the process and “calling for both parties to be at the table”.
He suggested that South Africa would continue to attend the peace initiative meetings if both Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin attended and agreed to a long-lasting solution to the war. So far Russia has not attended.
Phiri also responded to Polish media reports that Pretoria had indefinitely suspended a private contract of SA-based ammunition manufacturer Rheinmetall Denel Munition (RDM) to export 155mm artillery ammunition to Poland because of concerns that Poland would pass it on to Ukraine. This eventually prompted Poland to cancel the contract.
Phiri noted that under the Foreign Military Assistance Act, South Africa was required by law not to sell weapons to any state which may be engaged in a conflict.
“If there is weaponry in Poland that is South African and is going to be used in Ukraine, that would be inconsistent with that law…”
Japan
Phiri also said Lamola had just completed a successful visit to Japan to participate in the Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD) to prepare for the 9th TICAD summit, which will be held In Yokohama, Japan, in August 2025.
He noted that Lamola’s visit had coincided with the arrival of the first consignment of South African avocados exported to Japan, the result of successful negotiations culminating in an agreement between the two countries being signed earlier this year.
“This significant milestone marks the beginning of a new market opening for South African avocados in the East,” Phiri said, noting that the breakthroughs include opening big new markets in China and India.
He said Lamola had welcomed Toyota’s recent announcement of a strategic investment of R1.2-billion in the South African automotive industry.
“This investment shows that South Africa remains an attractive investment destination and a magnet for foreign direct investment,” Phiri said.
He said that next month Lamola would visit the United States before the UN General Assembly meeting and was expected to meet US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, among others. DM