South Africa’s foreign affairs department is ”quite optimistic” of a breakthrough in negotiations with Equatorial Guinea for the release of two South African crewmen being held there against their will.
”Our director-general has emphasised the need to bring them back home as soon as possible,” said spokeswoman Nomfanelo Kota. ”We are quite optimistic that this will be possible.”
Foreign affairs was in touch with their families. ”We share their pain and hope that the matter will be resolved as soon as possible.”
Employees of the Johannesburg-based company Global Aircraft Leasing (GAL), Sechan Pillay and his female colleague Ruwayda Kalbine are staying at the home of a South African diplomat in Malabo, the capital of the West African country.
”The despair and fear that we face the festive season without my brother Sechan, is becoming more of a reality — a reality that we as a family cannot accept,” said his sister Nisha Pillay.
”While I speak to Sechan on a daily basis, I know his spirit is diminishing and the hopelessness of the situation is all-consuming.”
She pleaded with the government of Equatorial Guinea to ”release Sechan and Ruwayda and take action against the wrongful parties”.
Refused exit from Equatorial Guinea last month, the two are being held as pawns in a business dispute between two aviation companies involved in a string of sub-contracts.
The Equatorial Guinea airline Getra — believed to be partly-owned by the country’s finance minister Mereelino Owono Edu — is demanding $285 000 from the Johannesburg-based company Venatto Trading for the release of Pillay and Kalbine.
GAL entered into a contract with Venatto Trading — signed through an agreement with Air Quarius — to fly one of its aircraft.
Venatto was then contracted to fly goods for Getra between Malabo, Bata on the mainland, and Douala in neighbouring Cameroon.
According to GAL, its chief executive officer Daniel Rosenzweig is out of the country and expected back on Friday morning. – Sapa