South Africa – Daily Maverick, August 22, 2024
A parliamentary committee is seeking answers on two SA men being held in an Equatorial Guinea jail.
Parliament’s international relations and cooperation committee is to call on International Relations and Cooperation Minister Ronald Lamola to brief it on what he is doing to secure the release of two South Africans imprisoned in Equatorial Guinea on allegedly trumped-up charges.
The committee decided this on Wednesday, 21 August 2024, at a meeting attended by the partners of the two engineers, Frik Potgieter, 54 and Peter Huxham, 55. Potgieter’s wife Sonja Potgieter and Huxham’s life partner Kathy McConnachie were invited to the meeting by MP Emma Powell, the DA’s spokesperson on international relations and cooperation.
Powell urged the committee to summon Lamola and his department to appear before the committee during the current term of Parliament to explain what they were doing to secure the release of Potgieter and Huxham, who she described as “hostages.”
She said that while Lamola’s predecessor Naledi Pandor had visited Equatorial Guinea on 5 May this year to plead for the release of the two men, “There has been no substantive communication by the department to the families since.
“In light of the lack of communication between our government and the hostages’ families, it is now incumbent on Parliament to determine exactly what steps Dirco is taking to secure the release of our citizens.
“In today’s committee meeting, it was resolved that the minister and his department would now be called before Parliament to account on all actions being taken to free these engineers,” she said.
The chairperson of the committee, MP Supra Mahumapelo, agreed and told the committee his office would write to Lamola to raise the matter which he said he hoped would receive urgent attention. He said South Africa was part of Africa and did business with the continent.
“And we should be made to feel safe wherever we are on the African continent when we do business.”
He also suggested to Potgieter and McConnachie that they might need to raise the issue directly with President Cyril Ramaphosa to ensure that it received the necessary attention.
He said he could imagine the pressure and worry the families were feeling about the safety of Potgieter and Huxham.
