Legal squabble intensifies between SA man, Equatorial Guinea’s vice president

A Garden Route man, who was wrongfully imprisoned in the Central African country of Equatorial Guinea, says he’s relieved that South Africa’s courts have seized another asset belonging to Vice President Teodoro Nguema Obiang.

Obiang ordered aviation expert, Daniel Janse van Rensburg’s imprisonment in 2013 after a business deal went wrong.

Last week, the Cape High Court instructed the seizure of Obiang’s multi-million rand yacht at the Cape Town harbour.

The seizure forms part of Janse van Rensburg’s lawsuit against Obiang for being falsely accused and his subsequent imprisonment and torture.

VIDEO | SA man imprisoned in Equatorial Guinea relieved after court seizes Obiang’s assets

Another small victory in the plight for justice. The Hoekwil businessman spent over a year in the notorious Black Beach prison on trumped-up charges.

After his release in 2015, he immediately sought justice. In 2021, the Cape High Court ordered Obiang to pay close to R40-million in damages.

Janse van Rensburg says he hopes it will be the end of the ongoing legal battle. “Yeah, God willing, this is the end. You know, it’s been really a long, long journey … It will be fantastic if we can just close this chapter at least.”

Obiang’s luxury homes and cars in Cape Town were also seized. The latest being his luxury yacht, the Blue Shadow. But his legal team has always filed appeals.

“We’ve attached first these two houses in Cape Town, one and Bishopscourt and one in Clifton and then we proceeded with a court case and so forth and proved everything that we had to prove and so on.  And we won on every account and every time when we win you know, they appeal and he’s got unending funds to do so. And we win the appeal, they appeal again. We just won a final judgment now in Cape Town two weeks ago and they’ve already indicated they’re going to appeal again. You know, just seems that there are never-ending appeals coming from their side.”

In response to the seizure of the yacht, the Department of International Relations says it was a private dispute.
Spokesperson Clayson Monyela said it was a court decision that had nothing to do with the government.