The families of two South African engineers – Frik Potgieter and Peter Huxham – who have been held in Equatorial Guinea since February 9, 2023, on June 24, handed over a formal request to Pan-African Parliament (PAP) president chief Fortune Charumbira asking the institution to intervene and help secure the men’s urgent release.

The PAP is the legislative and oversight arm of the African Union, based in Midrand.

According to a media release, the request was handed over at the official opening of the third Ordinary Session of the Sixth Parliament of the PAP at 13:00 on June 24.

“Frik and Peter are citizens of the African continent, where they have lived and worked all their lives. The PAP’s mandate is to protect the human rights of all the continent’s citizens, and we are, therefore, humbly asking for their assistance in freeing these two innocent men from unlawful imprisonment in Equatorial Guinea.

“Frik and Peter are beloved fathers, partners, grandfathers and pillars of both their families and their communities. For their families, every passing day without them is an eternity of missed moments and cherished memories that can never be regained. Their loved ones want them to come home,” said Potgieter family spokesperson Shaun Murphy.

Potgieter and Huxham were arrested and sentenced in Equatorial Guinea on what the families say are fabricated drug-related charges.

They were due to return to South Africa on the day of their arrest, after completing a work rotation for a global oil and gas company.

Police allegedly found drugs in their luggage, but the families have said that, when their employers fetched their luggage from the hotel where they were arrested, the luggage was still locked and unopened.

The families believe their arrest was in response to the seizure by the South African authorities of a luxury yacht and villas of Equatorial Guinea Vice President Teodore Nguema Obiang Mangue days earlier.