Mark Schmidt came home last week. He is back in Tzaneen, Limpopo, after being in prison in Equatorial Guinea for eight-and-a-half months.
Schmidt has been in the restaurant business for years. He was hired to do the housekeeping for a group of South Africans and Armenians working for Nick du Toit’s Triple Options Trading, but was arrested for trying to plot a coup.
The Mail & Guardian Online asked him 10 questions.
Du Toit was found guilty and convicted to a 34-year jail sentence. Co-accused ”Bones” Boonzaaier (also known as Bone) and two other South Africans were sentenced to 17 years’ imprisonment. Schmidt and two other prisoners were acquitted.
1. What happened on the night of your arrest?
The arrest came as a big surprise to me. I never expected that the military or the police were after us. We were sitting in the hostel, relaxing, when we got a phone call. They told us we had to stay in our residency.
The military came in after 8pm and all the South Africans were pointed out and thrown to the ground. The soldiers cuffed our hands behind our backs and they forced us in the back of a truck. Then they arrested the Armenians and took us all to Black Beach prison. The soldiers were aggressive and intoxicated; you could just smell the liquor on them. They seemed more interested in the South Africans than in the Armenians.
My passport was taken a week before we were arrested. I had a 50-day visa and someone from Nick du Toit’s company, Triple Option Trading, had taken it to get it extended. I never saw it [again] until the day I returned to South Africa.
I was employed as a cook and prepared three meals a day for the Armenians who stayed in the hostel. These guys were employed by Gerhard Hertz, the German guy. They were operating some sort of cargo operation. I am not sure what exactly it is they did. I never saw them work. They left once with the plane, but came back because there was something wrong with the aircraft.
The atmosphere in the hostel was relaxed. We went to the beach and I used to pack picnic baskets. The Armenians were supposed to stay in a three-star hotel, but that became a bit expensive. So Nick found a hostel of some sort.
What did the South African men do in Equatorial Guinea?
Not all the South Africans stayed with us. They were fishing, so some of them were on the mainland and others were working on the ship.
Sergio Cardoso was from South Africa. He was the first to arrive in Equatorial Guinea. He was running around organising everything, but it became a bit too much for him. So they were looking for someone to help. Bone — as we called Boonzaaier — was my landlord in Tzaneen; he knew my background [in the restaurant business] and my financial situation. He proposed that I could help.
2. What is prison life like in Equatorial Guinea?
We were held in a room of 20m by 4m. There were steel bunk beds and a partition behind which there was a toilet. There were no windows, only a gap of 1m by 30cm in the wall with steel bars. During the day there was enough light, but at night it was very dark; there was only one small globe.
The first 10 days, we were tied down with our hands behind our backs. Only when they brought us food they would release us and tie one hand to a steel bunk bed so we could eat with the other hand.
In those days they would beat us. One soldier would hold us at gunpoint and the other would beat us up, also with the back of a firearm. They were all drunk. They would burn things under my feet. They said we were going to die tomorrow.
Was there any sexual abuse?
No, no, thank God, no, that did not happen. That would have been terrible.
Gerhard [Hertz] was sick and weak. He was not the youngest, and when they were beating him he never said a word. They took him from the cell and we never saw him again. The beating stopped after Gerhard died. It just stopped. They said that the cause of death was malaria, but I don’t believe that. I think his death gave them a fright.
They also stopped tying our hands behind our backs and tied us to the beds. We had to urinate in a bottle for a week or so; after that they tied our hands in front of our bodies.
I was in that prison for eight months and two weeks. We were not with the same number of people in that cell all the time, because the number of local prisoners varied. I estimate that the maximum [number] of people was 50.
We got takeaway food until March 24, which was paid for by Nick. After that they asked me to cook for them. They released my hands and took me to the market and I would shop under the escort of a soldier. It was nice to be out in the sun and buy vegetables and meat.
But when there was no more money for that, they brought us food. Boxes with chicken, fish and buffalo meat. And rice, oil and tomato paste. I would just cook simple meals. The last three weeks of my imprisonment, we only ate rice because everything else was finished.
We ate once a day. In the morning, we were given three bread rolls and powdered milk and sugar, so we made hot milk.
3. How did you pass your time, and how did you keep your spirits up?
For me, it was a great relief to go out and cook. We were lucky enough to have a Bible in the cell and we prayed about four times a day. We also had some cards and a game of chess.
We all believed in our own innocence. Nobody felt that we were going to get 17 years or so in jail. We all thought we were going home. So that kept our spirits up as well.
4. Was it a fair trial?
No, it was not. We never had a chance to plead. In Equatorial Guinea, you are guilty until proven innocent. The whole court case was in Spanish, which made it very difficult for us to follow.
The only time we heard English was when the questions from the attorney general were translated into Spanish. You would not know if the answer was translated correctly. The lawyers were very limited in what they could say, and when they spoke they were often stopped.
Were you able to tell your own story?
I gave a statement to the Equato-Guinean interrogators, I gave a statement to the Zimbabwean government; I don’t know what they were doing there, but they wanted to know whether I had a military background.
Even the Scorpions interrogated us. They said I knew more than I was saying. They told me that if I could not give them information, they could not help me. I told him I had no clue what was going on, but they did not believe me. I was already shit-scared before they questioned me, but after the Scorpions [spoke to me] I really felt like shit. They were not going to help me.
We saw our first lawyer two days before the trial. He had one hour for eight South Africans. We each had about eight minutes, I think. He did not speak English and had a translator, so we could not talk much. This first lawyer died of malaria, but the second did not spend more time with us than the first one.
5. What was your involvement with Du Toit?
I never met Du Toit until a couple of days before I left for Equatorial Guinea. Bone would never have suggested me as a cook if he knew about an attempted coup. He knew I had a daughter and a life in South Africa.
I don’t know if they were planning a coup, I don’t know if he was in contact with [Mark] Thatcher or Simon Mann. [Mann is one of the alleged coup leaders and was convicted in Zimbabwe for security and firearms violations. Mark Thatcher has been charged in South Africa for helping to finance the coup.]
I know that the others were not aware of anything either; all they knew is they had to pick up 15 men from the airport.
In the appeal, they will have to prove that the men are guilty, and as far as I can see there is no proof. All those firearms they showed in court, I had never seen them in my life.
6. Why were you acquitted and others received a sentence of up to 17 years?
I think that was because I had no military background. I have never had anything to do with the army whatsoever. I don’t even like firearms. I was just the cook and I think they knew that. Even in prison they were nicer to me than to the others.
7. What support did you get from the South African government or other international organisations?
The Red Cross came and they were real lifesavers. And then there were the people from the consulate or embassy, and they came about twice. But the authorities made it very difficult for us to be visited or receive goods that were sent to us.
8. What do you think of the media coverage of the mercenary case?
Well, I have not been in the country for a long time so I do not know how they covered the whole case.
But after the press conference on Wednesday, I bought the papers and read the articles they wrote and saw how they changed the things I have said. I was misquoted on so many things and for me it is difficult to believe anything they write. I never said some of the things they wrote.
I do not know what their agenda is, but it is very strange they cannot get their facts right. We were only beaten in the beginning, but they wrote it like we were abused all the time. And the period we only ate rice was just three weeks, but they did not get that right.
9. In hindsight, is there anything you would have done differently?
I was completely unaware that this was going to happen. I was offered a job and with the exchange rate back then, I earned about R10 000 a month. I thought: let me do this for a year and save enough money to get married and settle down. I wanted to pay a deposit on my fiancée’s car and get out of my financial problems.
10. What is the best thing about being back home?
It was very nice to have a real South African beer and a braai with a nice steak, salad and pap, and to see my daughter and fiancée and family again.
And it made me realise what we have here in South Africa. People are moaning a lot in this country, but at least we live in a democracy and have freedom of speech. I think we are on the right track. I feel sorry for the people in Equatorial Guinea.
I hope we can get those other guys back here. They have an appeal and I hope will have a fair trial this time. And if someone is found guilty, I hope they can do their time here in South Africa, where they will be treated humanely and have the opportunity to see their families.