JOHANNESBURG, June 22, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - Two South African engineers jailed in Equatorial Guinea for more than two years on what they say are fake drugs charges returned home late Saturday after being freed on a presidential pardon.

Frik Potgieter and Peter Huxham, both in their mid-50s, arrived on a chartered flight and were welcomed by Foreign Minister Ronald Lamola, who had been involved in efforts for their release, their families said.

The "two innocent South African engineers, who had been unlawfully detained in Equatorial Guinea since 9 February 2023, have been released and are safely home on South African soil", they said in a statement.

Equatorial Guinea's President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, who has ruled the oil-rich central African country for 45 years with an iron fist, announced the pardon on June 7.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa welcomed the men home in a telephone call soon after their arrival, a representative said.

They were arrested two days after South African authorities impounded a luxury yacht belonging to Equatorial Guinea's vice president, Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue, who is also the president's son.

Potgieter and Huxham, who is a dual South African and UK citizen, rejected the charges. The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention said in 2024 that their detention was arbitrary and illegal and called for their release.
- Gratitude -

"South Africa expresses its sincere gratitude to the Government of Equatorial Guinea for considering and ultimately granting this Presidential pardon, allowing Mr Huxham and Mr Potgieter to return home to their loved ones," the foreign ministry said in a statement.

"The Government of South Africa acknowledges the complexity of the matter, including its sensitive diplomatic and legal dimensions," it said.

The engineers for Dutch oil and gas company SBM Offshore were arrested at a hotel in the capital Malabo the night before they were due to return to South Africa after a five-week work rotation.

They were sentenced to 12 years in jail and fined $5 million each.

The arrests came after a South African court ordered the vice president's super yacht and two villas seized in Cape Town in an unrelated case in which a South African businessman was suing over his own arrest in Equatorial Guinea after a business deal went sour in 2013.

The businessman, Daniel Janse van Rensburg, says he was unlawfully detained for nearly 500 days in the notorious Black Beach prison.

Potgieter and Huxham were initially held in the same prison before being transferred to one for political detainees, according to a website mobilising for their release.

"Their return home is the result of collective efforts over many, many months, and we are deeply grateful to everyone who played a role in securing their freedom," the family statement said. "This has been a long and difficult journey."

Equatorial Guinea has been firmly ruled by Mbasogo since 1979 and, aged 83, he is the longest-serving head of state alive today, excluding monarchs.

He has been considered to be grooming his vice-president son -- who has a scandal-tainted playboy reputation -- to be his successor.