A South African accused of being part of a plot to overthrow the Equatorial Guinea government earlier this year said on Tuesday he was relieved to be back home.
”South Africa is a fantastic country which you don’t realise how good it is till you leave it,” Mark Schmidt told the National Press Club in Pretoria.
He was found not guilty and released on November 27 ”after months of hell” in detention in the West African country.
He described how he and seven other South Africans and a number of Armenians had been beaten, shackled and starved while in prison.
He said he had seen how Gerhardt Murtz — the South African who died in March, allegedly from malaria — was beaten, dumped under a shower and then taken away ”never to be seen again”.
”He had a huge blue mark on his chest, I don’t know what that was from. I know I had malaria three times in prison and I am still here,” he said.
Schmidt said there he had not gone to Equatorial Guinea to overthrow the government.
”I was a chef and did the laundry and made sure our supplies were in order,” he said, explaining he had gone as part of a fishing business venture.
Belinda du Toit, wife of Nick du Toit, who was sentenced to 21 years in prison for his role in the coup, said her husband had started the fishing company.
”In Equatorial Guinea everything is imported — eggs, chickens. He saw an opportunity and started a company,” she said.
Three weeks into their venture however, they were rounded up by soldiers and arrested. She denied any involvement or knowledge of a coup plot.
She admitted that Mark Thatcher had approached her husband because he wanted to buy a helicopter, but said they did not know each other personally.
”My husband did [in the past] have a company that supplied military equipment, but everybody trusted him,” said Du Toit.
She believed that the Equatorial Guinea government fabricated the ”coup plot” story.
”In Equatorial Guinea they have a coup attempt at least once a month, and it’s not outsiders but their own people,” she said, describing the government as one that ruled through the barrel of an AK47.
”There are lots of political prisoners and they just disappear,” she said.
Georga Boonzaier, wife of ”Bones” Boonzaier, who was sentenced to 17 years in prison angrily defended her husband and those still in detention.
”People get branded so easily as being mercenaries and all they wanted to do is support their family,” she told the press club.
She said people’s lives lay in the balance and that none of the South Africans or Armenians arrested would survive two years, let alone their prison terms.
”The fight has just started,” she said, explaining how both women would looking for international help if their appeal to the Equatorial Guinea High Court failed.
Boonzaier and Du Toit described supplying the South Africans and Armenians with food and medicine paid for themselves.
”Our husbands may be starving but they refuse to eat when other less fortunate prisoners have no food,” she said, describing how for the past 25 days the inmates had been fed one cup of dry rice each.
The fight to assist their husbands has left both families financially strained.
”We still owe our lawyer 13 000 euros and we don’t know how we are going to pay him,” she said.
But for Schmidt, he said being home was ”fantastic”.
”Yes I did feel guilty leaving the others behind but they had always told me that I had nothing to fear as I was not a military type person,” he said.
He said he would spend the festive season with friends and loved ones before looking for a job in January.
”I definitely won’t be looking north of our borders.” he said. – Sapa