The families of Frik Potgieter and Peter Huxham, two South African engineers who have been imprisoned in Equatorial Guinea for 558 days, this week attended a session of Parliament to appeal to the International Relations Committee to prioritise efforts to secure the men’s release.

Potgieter’s wife Sonja and Huxham’s life partner Kathy McConnachie, were present at the meeting of the International Relations Committee, where the Democratic Alliance tabled a request for the committee to include a formal hearing with the families in its programme for this term and to invite representatives from the Department of International Relations and Cooperation (Dirco) to provide feedback on the steps government is taking to secure their release.

Committee chair Supra Mahumapelo said the matter would receive urgent attention and confirmed that the committee would write to International Relations and Cooperation Minister Ronald Lamola and invite him and representatives from Dirco to address the matter in Parliament.

This appeal follows the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention’s formal opinion, issued on July 1, which declared the men’s arrest and continued detention “illegal” and called for their immediate release.

As previously reported by Engineering News, the pair were detained in Equatorial Guinea on drug charges.

They were working for Dutch company SBM Offshore in the country at the time of their arrest.

The men were arrested at their hotel in Malabo, in February 2023, the night before they were due to fly back to South Africa following a five-week work rotation.

The men were arrested two days after South African courts seized a super yacht belonging to the Equatorial Guinean Vice President and just shortly after two of his Cape Town luxury homes were impounded.

“We are so pleased that the committee has agreed to table Frik and Peter’s tragic case, and so deeply grateful. Frik and Peter are innocent. Their only ‘crime’ is being South African. They were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time.

“The fact that the matter will be on the Parliamentary programme is extremely important. We need to know that our government is prioritising the human rights of its citizens. Specifically, we want to know what concrete steps are being taken to secure Frik and Peter’s immediate release. Why has there been no diplomatic action against Equatorial Guinea since the UN ruling? What is being done to ensure regular visits and to bring our beloved men home as quickly as possible? We need answers,” the women said after the session.