August 21, 2025 • 17 mins
Two South African oil workers who had been detained in Equatorial Guinea prisons for two years have spoken to Bloomberg about their ordeal.
Peter Huxham and Frik Potgieter were arrested on drug-trafficking charges and detained in short order in February 2023, days after a South African court ordered the seizure of a yacht linked to Equatorial Guinean Vice President Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue, known as Teodorin.
In this special episode of the Next Africa Podcast they talk about their arrest, what it’s like inside Equatorial Guinean prisons and how they feel now they are back with their families in South Africa.
And Bloomberg’s Energy reporter Paul Burkhardt speaks to Jennifer Zabasajja about the diplomatic relations between South Africa and Equatorial Guinea, the role of the Vice President, and what this means for international investment in OPEC’s smallest member.
For more stories from the region, subscribe to the Next Africa newsletter here
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, Radio News.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
Freed from prison after more than two years. Were two
South African oil workers ponds in a diplomatic row between
their country and Equatorial Guinea.
Speaker 3 (00:19):
The moment when I saw the race war and basically
who without two names on it, I realized that this
is something serious.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
With many international companies invested in the country, some are
now asking how safe it is to do business in
opek's smallest member state.
Speaker 4 (00:35):
You get one side, you get the people that's genuinely honest,
open people, that's the people on the ground, and on
the other side, you get the people that's in control
that's totally opposite. You learn a lot through a thing
like this that's happened to me and Peter.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
On this week's Next Africa Podcast, the oil workers speak
with Bloomberg about that incident. I'm Jennifer Zabastaja and this
is the Next Africa Podcast, bringing you one story each
week from the continent driving the future of global growth
with the context only Bloomberg can provide.
Speaker 5 (01:10):
And joining me.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
To discuss this today is Bloomberg reporter Paul Burkhart. He's
been following the story for some time now and actually
was able to interview Peter Huxhem and Frick Pottgeiter.
Speaker 5 (01:22):
Paul, thanks so much for being here. You know, I
don't think.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
We've been able to cover a story like this on
the podcast yet, so thanks for bringing it to us.
Speaker 5 (01:30):
So let's start from the.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
Beginning, maybe, and if you can give us a bit
of background on this case and talk to us about
Equatorial Guinea and the companies that we're investing in the country,
I believe that's a good place to start.
Speaker 6 (01:47):
In the nineties, Mobile made a huge discovery in Equatorial Guiney,
so the Atlantic coast of the African continent and was
kind of in the middle, and then production in increased
from there. Gatorial Guinea became a member of OPEK, and
it really because of this oil wealth just enabled the
(02:08):
kind of the ruling family. Their Exxon became the backbone
of production. But the other US companies have also joined,
and other Western oil producers have joined. And the workers
typically live in gated communities or on the platforms and
then just kind of rotate out, but they're largely kind
(02:30):
of separate from the rest of the country.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
And so then, Paul, how did these two oil workers
find themselves arrested. Take us through that story.
Speaker 6 (02:42):
So they were really just on their way back from
a stint of working on the platforms.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
The engineers.
Speaker 6 (02:49):
They were working on these oil platforms and expecting to
take a flight the next day. It's staying on this
island where they would bore their flight when they were arrested,
charged with drug trafficking. It was very discombobulating situation and
just like in the dark most of the times of
(03:10):
what was going on.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
So after they were released.
Speaker 6 (03:13):
And back in South Africa, I was able to talk
to them and they told me about the moment that
they realized things were going wrong.
Speaker 3 (03:22):
The moment they that I saw this is when I
saw the restaurantant basically without two names on it. I
realized that this is a this is something serious, and
I immediately phoned my partner and I let her know.
Speaker 7 (03:35):
Phone my shore base manager.
Speaker 3 (03:37):
I let him know and at that stage my back
to back, the guy that would replace me on the
on the platform.
Speaker 7 (03:43):
He was also in the hotel, so I sent him
a WhatsApp with.
Speaker 3 (03:46):
My partner's contact details, you know, so that if they
were to confiscate my phone, he at least would be
in country and maybe could provide her with some support.
So yeah, I mean within ten minutes, I think our
whole company.
Speaker 7 (04:00):
I also told her to notify our embassy.
Speaker 3 (04:03):
So I tried to get as many people aware of
what was happening to me and where they were taking me.
So I handed the phone to the driver of the
police vehicle that was taking us to the police.
Speaker 7 (04:12):
I ended the phone phone to him so.
Speaker 3 (04:15):
That he could let my show base manager know where
he's taking me. He was reluctant at first.
Speaker 4 (04:20):
But I insisted I didn't add any suspicion that this
is going to turn out to the way he did.
I thought, well, I was maybe a witness or something.
But when I reached the police station, but there's a
lot of people there waiting for us, a company, the lawyers,
and people from the embassies, that's when you realized this
is this thing is big, not a normal just a statement.
(04:41):
And then you can go back to the hotel, and
that's when the fear really hits you in the Then
you start thinking, well, people disappear in Africa, and people
disappear in these countries, and then you realize you're in
a big, big mess.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
And so that's that's quite a story from them, a
herrowing story. I wonder what they told you about what
the conditions were like when they were in custody.
Speaker 5 (05:05):
How much detail did they get into it was, it's
quite vivid.
Speaker 6 (05:08):
And they were first taken to Black Beach Jail, which
is very like notorious just throughout Africa. And soon after
that they were taken to the mainland, and the mainland
that they were held in a facility that were usually
political prisoners are kept.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
Here's Peter and Frick again.
Speaker 7 (05:28):
I don't know about Black Beach.
Speaker 4 (05:29):
I don't know any history of Black Beach. Well, the
first thing that slakes you is the gods. They don't
go inside the present itself. You get actually picked up
by fellow prisoners, can call them the guardians or whatever,
the rulers of the present, and then they take you
through and they tell you the rules and the regulations
or what's happening inside. Now everything's going to work out.
(05:51):
That's a big fright are you getting in there? There's
another I would say about two three hundred guys in
there or looking at you strangely, and then you realize, hey,
this is a real, real bad situation. You are in
the place is not trying to be kept clean by
the fellow prisoners. They sought out all the rules and
regulations inside by themselves. We didn't see any abuse taken
(06:17):
place verbally or physically on fellow prisoners or whatever. But yow,
the circumstances inside is very bad. The food, the food
that even the fellow prisoners they warn you don't eat
the food because they don't even eat the food. That
is how bad the food is inside.
Speaker 7 (06:33):
In the beginning, they put us down in this underground area.
Speaker 3 (06:36):
It's sort of it looks like a secret location because
the entrance to it it looks like a servitude.
Speaker 7 (06:41):
There's pipes inside this cupboard and then you have to
swing the whole closet out of the wall.
Speaker 3 (06:47):
And then it provides access to these stairs leading down.
Speaker 7 (06:50):
That's two flights leading down in that space.
Speaker 3 (06:53):
At the bottom, they are four cells they roughly two
meters by two meters, including a toilet.
Speaker 7 (06:59):
I was in cell No.
Speaker 3 (07:00):
One and Frecusine number sell number four initially, so we
were separated by two cells. We were only we were
the only guys down there. For the first two weeks.
We didn't see any daylight, so they kept us down
there for two weeks and only after that did we
get the opportunity to go out on a daily basis
to get some fresh air exercise.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
So Paul, stick with us. When we come back, we'll
talk about the role EG Vice President Tyo Doren played
and their detention, and also the connection to South Africa
in a bit more detail.
Speaker 5 (07:30):
We'll be right back. Welcome back. Today. We're hearing from
the two oil.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
Workers back in South Africa after being pardoned and released
from an Equatorial Guinea jail after more than two years
in detention. Paul Burkhart is still with us. Paul, let's
talk about the relationship between the vice president of Equatorial
Guinea and South Africa. What happened in the run up
(08:02):
to the workers arrest.
Speaker 6 (08:04):
So shortly before Peter and Frick were jailed, there was
a yacht that's that was linked to the vice president
that was seized here in Cape Town as part of
the case that was won by a South African who
was separately imprisoned earlier before these two men were and
(08:25):
took it up, you know, in a court here and
then won the case or one part of the case.
And when that yacht was seized in the days after
these two men in Equatorial Guinea were put in jail
and fined and you know, and sentenced. And so the
sources that we spoke to connected the jailing of Peter
(08:47):
and Frick with the seizure of the yacht, and Teodorin
has said that it belongs to the Ministry of Defense
and it's since been released, but the link was there
from the people that we spoke to, and that that
was really kind of a cause and effect and it's
one of the retaliatory measures that we're talking about, or
it falls in line with some of this, you know,
(09:10):
the trend that we had seen from earlier cases.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
And I wonder if Paul, you cover the energy industry
very closely. I wonder back then what the reaction was
to their arrest, if there was reaction within the oil
industry or back home in South Africa for these men.
Speaker 6 (09:29):
I think there was some surprise because it did link
directly to the oil industry. So usually there's that kind
of operate in parallel. The oil industry is there, but
it sort of lives in its own environment, so it
was surprising.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
For a lot of people.
Speaker 6 (09:48):
But it's also such a sensitive nature and there's so
much uncertainty as to what could happen politically in that country,
that the oil companies don't really come out and make
proclamations about what they think. They're quite sensitive and then
and they're they're mainly concerned about you know, their operations
(10:10):
and their staff there, and they're having discussions to deal
with that. But but you know amongst themselves really.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
Yeah, they probably have to be delicate about what all
they can or can't say, which leads me to wondering
how the discussions about their release then ended up happening.
Do we know any sort of details about what went
on behind the scenes potentially to negotiate their release.
Speaker 6 (10:35):
No, again, because of yeah, because of the sensitivity of it,
we don't know exactly like what the engagements were. We
do know that that South Africa, the you know, the
South African government through the Foreign Ministry, had brought this up,
that it was it was discussed both in Equatorial guint
and in South Africa with officials. We know that the
(10:58):
employer of the two Men Oil Services company sbm that
they were involved in doing whatever they could to help out.
And yeah, otherwise, another thing that happened was the United
Nations Working Group on arbitrary detention, took an opinion on
the case and found that the imprisonment of the two
(11:20):
South Africans was in breach of multiple international human rights
So whether that played a part in what led to
the release.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
We just don't know. But there were a few things
that happened.
Speaker 6 (11:32):
And again, all that time went by, so there might
have been pressure building in one area or another.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
And you spent quite a bit of time speaking to
these two men. What did Peter and Frick have to
say about how this whole incident has left them feeling
towards the country.
Speaker 6 (11:52):
It's kind of amazing because I think it was such
an intense period of just isolation for both of them
that they really had so much time to reflect and
they want to move on, and they want to make
up for the time that they lost with the people
that they love.
Speaker 1 (12:12):
And they even you know.
Speaker 6 (12:15):
Had had things to say about the people they met
in detention and and and really developed bonds with some
of the people that they got to know there. So
they wonder about them, and they wonder what's happened with
their fair will be.
Speaker 3 (12:30):
I mean, obviously there is a there is a degree
of anger. You know, you have to you have to
God against it overwhelming you. I tried to focus on
healing and my own future, but these in the back
of your mind, there's always the seed that injustice was
was done upon you, and you know, you like for
there to be some sort of acknowledgment of that. But
(12:51):
I think at this stage of my life it's really
really important that I live the rest of my life
to the full and not to try and you know,
use my time in in retribution.
Speaker 4 (13:01):
You still think about the people that's still stuck in
that prison, and I don't think that will ever get
out of your mind. And their answer actually tied. We
tried to help those guys as well. That's still stuck there.
So that's the ongoing bad dam. But except from that, okay,
there's no ed retribution on nothing from my side.
Speaker 3 (13:19):
No, Equatorial is probably a country of two extremes.
Speaker 7 (13:24):
You know, we have really really good people that that
took good care of.
Speaker 3 (13:28):
Us, and you know that were a great source of
inspiration to us.
Speaker 7 (13:33):
You know that the people down on the ground. I
think it's very easy.
Speaker 3 (13:36):
To generalize, you know, when you have when you have
a place that maybe doesn't have a political system that
we all agree with, you know, to feel that all
the all the inhabitants of the country are guilty, and
they're not. You know, they're really really good, warm people
that we experience with that I experienced anyway, so.
Speaker 4 (13:53):
We may we made a lot of friends on that side,
fellow prisoners, fellow wardens. And you get to one side
to get the people that's genuinely honost open people, that's
the people on the ground, and on the other side
you get the people that's in control, that's totally opposite.
You learn a lot through a thing like this that's
happened to me and Peter.
Speaker 2 (14:15):
And are there lessons potentially to be learned from Equatorial
Guinea and whether or not this could potentially happen again,
or whether or not companies are now taking extra precautions
to protect their own nationals who may be there for work.
Speaker 6 (14:32):
The hope is that this was an isolated incident. I
think Frick had had mentioned that he didn't think it
was going to happen again. The other thing is that
Equatorial Guiney's oil production they're the smallest OPEC member based
on output, right, so that's dropping because then they need
to keep investment. So these types of incidents wouldn't encourage investments,
(14:56):
and so they really need to do as much as
they can to keep production going. But one aspect to
watch will be when President Obion retires and if in
fact the.
Speaker 2 (15:10):
Role will go to Tiodoran and so then Paul, what
has Equatorial Guinea had to say about all of this?
Speaker 6 (15:17):
Well, I mean, aside from the presidential pardon that not
only include Peter and Frick, but a number of other prisoners,
there wasn't anything directly that they said in response to
our questions about you know, why this was happening during
the detention or you know, what was the reason for it,
(15:39):
or what they had to say about a link to Tiodoran.
Speaker 1 (15:44):
There wasn't much information from them.
Speaker 2 (15:46):
And you can read Paul's coverage of Equatorial Guinea and
the energy sector across Bloomberg platforms. Now Here are some
of the other stories from the region that we've been
following this week. Kenya is in talks with to convert
dollar denominated debt the East African nation, Owes its biggest
bilateral lender to Yuwan and extend the repayment period. According
(16:09):
to the Treasury Secretary John Body, the negotiations are aimed
at helping reduce the one billion dollars Kenya spends annually
on servicing its debt to China and to create more
wiggle room in its budget. And an International Monetary Fund
team was in Senegal this week to discuss concrete steps
to address recent data issues and advance work toward presenting
(16:33):
a misreporting case to the IMFs Executive Board.
Speaker 5 (16:37):
Investors are closely.
Speaker 2 (16:38):
Watching to see whether the West African nation will inch
closer to securing new funding needed to stabilize its trained
public finances, and you can follow these stories across Bloomberg,
including the Next African Newsletter. Will put a link to
that in the show notes. This program was produced by
Adrian Bradley and Tiwa Adubai. Don't forget to follow and
(17:01):
review this show wherever you usually get your podcasts, But
for now, I'm Jennifer's Abistanja. Thanks as always for listening
Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, Radio News.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
Freed from prison after more than two years. Were two
South African oil workers ponds in a diplomatic row between
their country and Equatorial Guinea.
Speaker 3 (00:19):
The moment when I saw the race war and basically
who without two names on it, I realized that this
is something serious.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
With many international companies invested in the country, some are
now asking how safe it is to do business in
opek's smallest member state.
Speaker 4 (00:35):
You get one side, you get the people that's genuinely honest,
open people, that's the people on the ground, and on
the other side, you get the people that's in control
that's totally opposite. You learn a lot through a thing
like this that's happened to me and Peter.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
On this week's Next Africa Podcast, the oil workers speak
with Bloomberg about that incident. I'm Jennifer Zabastaja and this
is the Next Africa Podcast, bringing you one story each
week from the continent driving the future of global growth
with the context only Bloomberg can provide.
Speaker 5 (01:10):
And joining me.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
To discuss this today is Bloomberg reporter Paul Burkhart. He's
been following the story for some time now and actually
was able to interview Peter Huxhem and Frick Pottgeiter.
Speaker 5 (01:22):
Paul, thanks so much for being here. You know, I
don't think.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
We've been able to cover a story like this on
the podcast yet, so thanks for bringing it to us.
Speaker 5 (01:30):
So let's start from the.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
Beginning, maybe, and if you can give us a bit
of background on this case and talk to us about
Equatorial Guinea and the companies that we're investing in the country,
I believe that's a good place to start.
Speaker 6 (01:47):
In the nineties, Mobile made a huge discovery in Equatorial Guiney,
so the Atlantic coast of the African continent and was
kind of in the middle, and then production in increased
from there. Gatorial Guinea became a member of OPEK, and
it really because of this oil wealth just enabled the
(02:08):
kind of the ruling family. Their Exxon became the backbone
of production. But the other US companies have also joined,
and other Western oil producers have joined. And the workers
typically live in gated communities or on the platforms and
then just kind of rotate out, but they're largely kind
(02:30):
of separate from the rest of the country.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
And so then, Paul, how did these two oil workers
find themselves arrested. Take us through that story.
Speaker 6 (02:42):
So they were really just on their way back from
a stint of working on the platforms.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
The engineers.
Speaker 6 (02:49):
They were working on these oil platforms and expecting to
take a flight the next day. It's staying on this
island where they would bore their flight when they were arrested,
charged with drug trafficking. It was very discombobulating situation and
just like in the dark most of the times of
(03:10):
what was going on.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
So after they were released.
Speaker 6 (03:13):
And back in South Africa, I was able to talk
to them and they told me about the moment that
they realized things were going wrong.
Speaker 3 (03:22):
The moment they that I saw this is when I
saw the restaurantant basically without two names on it. I
realized that this is a this is something serious, and
I immediately phoned my partner and I let her know.
Speaker 7 (03:35):
Phone my shore base manager.
Speaker 3 (03:37):
I let him know and at that stage my back
to back, the guy that would replace me on the
on the platform.
Speaker 7 (03:43):
He was also in the hotel, so I sent him
a WhatsApp with.
Speaker 3 (03:46):
My partner's contact details, you know, so that if they
were to confiscate my phone, he at least would be
in country and maybe could provide her with some support.
So yeah, I mean within ten minutes, I think our
whole company.
Speaker 7 (04:00):
I also told her to notify our embassy.
Speaker 3 (04:03):
So I tried to get as many people aware of
what was happening to me and where they were taking me.
So I handed the phone to the driver of the
police vehicle that was taking us to the police.
Speaker 7 (04:12):
I ended the phone phone to him so.
Speaker 3 (04:15):
That he could let my show base manager know where
he's taking me. He was reluctant at first.
Speaker 4 (04:20):
But I insisted I didn't add any suspicion that this
is going to turn out to the way he did.
I thought, well, I was maybe a witness or something.
But when I reached the police station, but there's a
lot of people there waiting for us, a company, the lawyers,
and people from the embassies, that's when you realized this
is this thing is big, not a normal just a statement.
(04:41):
And then you can go back to the hotel, and
that's when the fear really hits you in the Then
you start thinking, well, people disappear in Africa, and people
disappear in these countries, and then you realize you're in
a big, big mess.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
And so that's that's quite a story from them, a
herrowing story. I wonder what they told you about what
the conditions were like when they were in custody.
Speaker 5 (05:05):
How much detail did they get into it was, it's
quite vivid.
Speaker 6 (05:08):
And they were first taken to Black Beach Jail, which
is very like notorious just throughout Africa. And soon after
that they were taken to the mainland, and the mainland
that they were held in a facility that were usually
political prisoners are kept.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
Here's Peter and Frick again.
Speaker 7 (05:28):
I don't know about Black Beach.
Speaker 4 (05:29):
I don't know any history of Black Beach. Well, the
first thing that slakes you is the gods. They don't
go inside the present itself. You get actually picked up
by fellow prisoners, can call them the guardians or whatever,
the rulers of the present, and then they take you
through and they tell you the rules and the regulations
or what's happening inside. Now everything's going to work out.
(05:51):
That's a big fright are you getting in there? There's
another I would say about two three hundred guys in
there or looking at you strangely, and then you realize, hey,
this is a real, real bad situation. You are in
the place is not trying to be kept clean by
the fellow prisoners. They sought out all the rules and
regulations inside by themselves. We didn't see any abuse taken
(06:17):
place verbally or physically on fellow prisoners or whatever. But yow,
the circumstances inside is very bad. The food, the food
that even the fellow prisoners they warn you don't eat
the food because they don't even eat the food. That
is how bad the food is inside.
Speaker 7 (06:33):
In the beginning, they put us down in this underground area.
Speaker 3 (06:36):
It's sort of it looks like a secret location because
the entrance to it it looks like a servitude.
Speaker 7 (06:41):
There's pipes inside this cupboard and then you have to
swing the whole closet out of the wall.
Speaker 3 (06:47):
And then it provides access to these stairs leading down.
Speaker 7 (06:50):
That's two flights leading down in that space.
Speaker 3 (06:53):
At the bottom, they are four cells they roughly two
meters by two meters, including a toilet.
Speaker 7 (06:59):
I was in cell No.
Speaker 3 (07:00):
One and Frecusine number sell number four initially, so we
were separated by two cells. We were only we were
the only guys down there. For the first two weeks.
We didn't see any daylight, so they kept us down
there for two weeks and only after that did we
get the opportunity to go out on a daily basis
to get some fresh air exercise.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
So Paul, stick with us. When we come back, we'll
talk about the role EG Vice President Tyo Doren played
and their detention, and also the connection to South Africa
in a bit more detail.
Speaker 5 (07:30):
We'll be right back. Welcome back. Today. We're hearing from
the two oil.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
Workers back in South Africa after being pardoned and released
from an Equatorial Guinea jail after more than two years
in detention. Paul Burkhart is still with us. Paul, let's
talk about the relationship between the vice president of Equatorial
Guinea and South Africa. What happened in the run up
(08:02):
to the workers arrest.
Speaker 6 (08:04):
So shortly before Peter and Frick were jailed, there was
a yacht that's that was linked to the vice president
that was seized here in Cape Town as part of
the case that was won by a South African who
was separately imprisoned earlier before these two men were and
(08:25):
took it up, you know, in a court here and
then won the case or one part of the case.
And when that yacht was seized in the days after
these two men in Equatorial Guinea were put in jail
and fined and you know, and sentenced. And so the
sources that we spoke to connected the jailing of Peter
(08:47):
and Frick with the seizure of the yacht, and Teodorin
has said that it belongs to the Ministry of Defense
and it's since been released, but the link was there
from the people that we spoke to, and that that
was really kind of a cause and effect and it's
one of the retaliatory measures that we're talking about, or
it falls in line with some of this, you know,
(09:10):
the trend that we had seen from earlier cases.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
And I wonder if Paul, you cover the energy industry
very closely. I wonder back then what the reaction was
to their arrest, if there was reaction within the oil
industry or back home in South Africa for these men.
Speaker 6 (09:29):
I think there was some surprise because it did link
directly to the oil industry. So usually there's that kind
of operate in parallel. The oil industry is there, but
it sort of lives in its own environment, so it
was surprising.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
For a lot of people.
Speaker 6 (09:48):
But it's also such a sensitive nature and there's so
much uncertainty as to what could happen politically in that country,
that the oil companies don't really come out and make
proclamations about what they think. They're quite sensitive and then
and they're they're mainly concerned about you know, their operations
(10:10):
and their staff there, and they're having discussions to deal
with that. But but you know amongst themselves really.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
Yeah, they probably have to be delicate about what all
they can or can't say, which leads me to wondering
how the discussions about their release then ended up happening.
Do we know any sort of details about what went
on behind the scenes potentially to negotiate their release.
Speaker 6 (10:35):
No, again, because of yeah, because of the sensitivity of it,
we don't know exactly like what the engagements were. We
do know that that South Africa, the you know, the
South African government through the Foreign Ministry, had brought this up,
that it was it was discussed both in Equatorial guint
and in South Africa with officials. We know that the
(10:58):
employer of the two Men Oil Services company sbm that
they were involved in doing whatever they could to help out.
And yeah, otherwise, another thing that happened was the United
Nations Working Group on arbitrary detention, took an opinion on
the case and found that the imprisonment of the two
(11:20):
South Africans was in breach of multiple international human rights
So whether that played a part in what led to
the release.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
We just don't know. But there were a few things
that happened.
Speaker 6 (11:32):
And again, all that time went by, so there might
have been pressure building in one area or another.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
And you spent quite a bit of time speaking to
these two men. What did Peter and Frick have to
say about how this whole incident has left them feeling
towards the country.
Speaker 6 (11:52):
It's kind of amazing because I think it was such
an intense period of just isolation for both of them
that they really had so much time to reflect and
they want to move on, and they want to make
up for the time that they lost with the people
that they love.
Speaker 1 (12:12):
And they even you know.
Speaker 6 (12:15):
Had had things to say about the people they met
in detention and and and really developed bonds with some
of the people that they got to know there. So
they wonder about them, and they wonder what's happened with
their fair will be.
Speaker 3 (12:30):
I mean, obviously there is a there is a degree
of anger. You know, you have to you have to
God against it overwhelming you. I tried to focus on
healing and my own future, but these in the back
of your mind, there's always the seed that injustice was
was done upon you, and you know, you like for
there to be some sort of acknowledgment of that. But
(12:51):
I think at this stage of my life it's really
really important that I live the rest of my life
to the full and not to try and you know,
use my time in in retribution.
Speaker 4 (13:01):
You still think about the people that's still stuck in
that prison, and I don't think that will ever get
out of your mind. And their answer actually tied. We
tried to help those guys as well. That's still stuck there.
So that's the ongoing bad dam. But except from that, okay,
there's no ed retribution on nothing from my side.
Speaker 3 (13:19):
No, Equatorial is probably a country of two extremes.
Speaker 7 (13:24):
You know, we have really really good people that that
took good care of.
Speaker 3 (13:28):
Us, and you know that were a great source of
inspiration to us.
Speaker 7 (13:33):
You know that the people down on the ground. I
think it's very easy.
Speaker 3 (13:36):
To generalize, you know, when you have when you have
a place that maybe doesn't have a political system that
we all agree with, you know, to feel that all
the all the inhabitants of the country are guilty, and
they're not. You know, they're really really good, warm people
that we experience with that I experienced anyway, so.
Speaker 4 (13:53):
We may we made a lot of friends on that side,
fellow prisoners, fellow wardens. And you get to one side
to get the people that's genuinely honost open people, that's
the people on the ground, and on the other side
you get the people that's in control, that's totally opposite.
You learn a lot through a thing like this that's
happened to me and Peter.
Speaker 2 (14:15):
And are there lessons potentially to be learned from Equatorial
Guinea and whether or not this could potentially happen again,
or whether or not companies are now taking extra precautions
to protect their own nationals who may be there for work.
Speaker 6 (14:32):
The hope is that this was an isolated incident. I
think Frick had had mentioned that he didn't think it
was going to happen again. The other thing is that
Equatorial Guiney's oil production they're the smallest OPEC member based
on output, right, so that's dropping because then they need
to keep investment. So these types of incidents wouldn't encourage investments,
(14:56):
and so they really need to do as much as
they can to keep production going. But one aspect to
watch will be when President Obion retires and if in
fact the.
Speaker 2 (15:10):
Role will go to Tiodoran and so then Paul, what
has Equatorial Guinea had to say about all of this?
Speaker 6 (15:17):
Well, I mean, aside from the presidential pardon that not
only include Peter and Frick, but a number of other prisoners,
there wasn't anything directly that they said in response to
our questions about you know, why this was happening during
the detention or you know, what was the reason for it,
(15:39):
or what they had to say about a link to Tiodoran.
Speaker 1 (15:44):
There wasn't much information from them.
Speaker 2 (15:46):
And you can read Paul's coverage of Equatorial Guinea and
the energy sector across Bloomberg platforms. Now Here are some
of the other stories from the region that we've been
following this week. Kenya is in talks with to convert
dollar denominated debt the East African nation, Owes its biggest
bilateral lender to Yuwan and extend the repayment period. According
(16:09):
to the Treasury Secretary John Body, the negotiations are aimed
at helping reduce the one billion dollars Kenya spends annually
on servicing its debt to China and to create more
wiggle room in its budget. And an International Monetary Fund
team was in Senegal this week to discuss concrete steps
to address recent data issues and advance work toward presenting
(16:33):
a misreporting case to the IMFs Executive Board.
Speaker 5 (16:37):
Investors are closely.
Speaker 2 (16:38):
Watching to see whether the West African nation will inch
closer to securing new funding needed to stabilize its trained
public finances, and you can follow these stories across Bloomberg,
including the Next African Newsletter. Will put a link to
that in the show notes. This program was produced by
Adrian Bradley and Tiwa Adubai. Don't forget to follow and
(17:01):
review this show wherever you usually get your podcasts, But
for now, I'm Jennifer's Abistanja. Thanks as always for listening
Host
Jennifer Zabasajja
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