The South African embassy in Harare denied knowledge on Monday of alleged brutal treatment of 67 citizens held in prison in that country on mercenary charges.
”These are new allegations. We have no record of such complaints,” deputy ambassador Kingsley Sithole said in Harare.
”I am not dismissing the allegations, but nobody has brought them to our attention.”
Die Beeld newspaper quoted a friend of one of the alleged mercenaries on Monday as saying the men have been without running water for nearly a month, and were covered in lice.
They were allegedly fed thin, watery porridge and did not have enough water to drink or wash in.
The friend, Sharon Wheeler, said she had reported these conditions to the South African embassy, but has received no response.
The men’s lawyer, Alwyn Griebenow, also described their living conditions as ”horrible”.
Their prison food had no nutritional value, they slept on the floor, and sometimes weeks went by without running water, he said on Monday.
”Sometimes they each have a small cup of water with which to
wash, shave, brush their teeth and drink from,” Griebenow said.
He claimed the prison authorities have refused permission to hand over jerseys knitted especially for the men in conformance with prison uniform regulations.
”Overall they are all right. Just thin, cold and hungry,” Griebenow said of his clients.
Sithole said the men were visited by embassy staff once a week, and the latest complaints were not shared with South African officials.
During these regular visits, the prisoners were visited and interviewed individually, and each was given an opportunity to raise concerns, Sithole said.
”Where complaints have arisen in the past, we raised them with the prison authorities and they were attended to.” Sithole said there had been a water problem, which was ”rectified” in February.
”The next time we visit, which will be in the next seven days, we will make enquiries about the complaints and try to determine by whom they were made,” he said.
”If substantial, the complaints will be brought to the attention of the authorities to be rectified.”
The men are serving their sentences at Harare’s Chikurubi prison.
Sixty-two of them became eligible for immediate release last month after receiving a four-month reprieve on their sentences in a successful court appeal.
But their return home was delayed when Zimbabwean attorney-general Sobuza Gula-Ndebele applied successfully for leave to appeal against the Supreme Court’s reduction of the men’s sentences.
No date has been set for the appeal.
The men were among 70 arrested in March last year over plans for an alleged coup d’etat in Equatorial Guinea. Two were acquitted, two more freed for medical reasons, and one died in jail.
Of the 65 remaining, two pilots and alleged coup leader Simon Mann received longer sentences. With the four-month reductions in their jail terms, the pilots would become eligible for release next month and Mann in May next year.
Apart from the Supreme Court’s four-month reduction, all 65 men also qualified for a one-third remission of sentence for good behaviour under Zimbabwean law.
The group was arrested at Harare International Airport when they landed to refuel and pick up military equipment. They were all travelling on South African passports.
Zimbabwean authorities said they were on their way to join 15 other suspected mercenaries — including eight South Africans — arrested in Equatorial Guinea around the same time.
They were accused of planning to overthrow Equatorial Guinea’s dictator, Teodoro Obiang Nguema.
The men denied the charges, claiming they were going to the Democratic Republic of Congo to guard mines. They were convicted of breaching Zimbabwe’s aviation, immigration, firearms and security laws.
British businessman Mark Thatcher, accused of partly financing the alleged coup plot, was fined R3-million in January after pleading guilty to contravening South African anti-mercenary laws. — Sapa