The South African government will send a delegation to Equatorial Guinea to ensure that the trial of eight South Africans arrested in that country — for allegedly plotting to overthrow President Teodoro Obiang Nguema — will be conducted in a fair manner.
Minister of Foreign Affairs Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma announced this in Pretoria on Wednesday following a meeting between herself, President Thabo Mbeki, Nguema and Equatorial Guinea’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Pastor Micha Ondo Bile.
”We will be sending a delegation to Malabo to help the Equatorial Guinea government ensure that the trial is fair and that all the requirements are met,” she said, noting that these include proper conditions of detention.
She explained that the delegation will possible comprise members from the justice, foreign affairs, safety and security, and correctional services departments.
Questioned on whether the issue of the death penalty has been raised, Dlamini-Zuma said the government will let the trial run its course and will intervene only if it is necessary and if the alleged mercenaries are convicted and sentenced to death.
The eight men are part of a group of 15 held in Equatorial Guinea and 70 being detained in Zimbabwe, accused of conspiring to overthrow the Equatorial Guinea government in a coup d’état earlier this year.
The Constitutional Court in South Africa will on Monday hear an appeal from the families of the men in Zimbabwe who are asking that the South African government be ordered to seek their extradition to South Africa.
Transvaal Judge President Bernard Ngoepe turned down an application last month for an order compelling the South African government to seek the men’s extradition.
Dlamini-Zuma said that the Equatorial Guinea government has expressed a desire to get the trial started and to get it finished as soon as possible.
This feeling, she said, has been endorsed by Mbeki.
Wednesday’s talks followed the signing of the general cooperation agreement in 2003 and reciprocal agreement on the promotion and protection of investments earlier this year.
”This was a short working visit to see where we are and how we are to implement items we have agreed on,” Dlamini-Zuma said.
It was also decided to establish a binational commission with oil-rich Equatorial Guinea to strengthen relations. South Africa will soon open its first diplomatic mission in Malabo.
Dlamini-Zuma said the first official will be sent next month to establish the embassy ”because South Africa needed a mission to be set up to take care of all that is going on there on behalf of the government”.
Dlamini-Zuma said a second delegation will be established to investigate aspects of cooperation within the ambit of minerals and energy and other investments. On Tuesday the government signed a similar agreement with the West African country of Burkina Faso to help map and access its mineral deposits.
Dlamini-Zuma said Minister of Minerals and Energy Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka would visit Equatorial Guinea shortly to further this cause.
She said Equatorial Guinea has also requested to become more involved in the New Partnership for Africa’s Development and that South Africa will be sending officials to the country to help advise it on this matter. — Sapa