The vice-president of Equatorial Guinea, Teodorin “Teddy” Nguema Obiang Mangue, has mounted a legal fight-back to stop the judicial sale of his multimillion-rand Cape Town homes in Clifton and Bishopscourt.
Obiang lost the furniture from his R40m Bishopscourt mansion in January in a sheriff's auction following a civil court battle with local businessman Daniel Janse van Rensburg, who was imprisoned for 423 days in Equatorial Guinea in September 2013.
Obiang, who has never spent a night in either of his Cape Town properties, is contesting a R39m damages claim arising from Janse van Rensburg’s ordeal, during which he says he contracted typhoid and nearly died.
The businessman — who spent most of his incarceration in the notorious Black Beach jail — was locked up without being charged after a failed business deal with one of Obiang’s relatives.
Late last year the Cape Town high court dismissed Obiang’s appeal against the civil claim, paving the way for the attachment of the assets, with the two houses likely to be auctioned in the latter half of this year.
But in an affidavit filed last month Obiang insists he is the victim, not the guilty party — and says it is Janse van Rensburg who should be penalised, for “contempt of court”.
He insists the judicial sale of his furniture was wrongful because he is still seeking a court order to rescind the original damages claim.
“Janse van Rensburg’s contemptuous conduct cannot be condoned,” Obiang says in his affidavit. “This honourable court ought to order a sanction of a suspended sentence of imprisonment, alternatively a fine.”
Obiang complains that papers were not delivered to him personally but to the Equatorial Guinea embassy in Pretoria.
“I am not employed at the EG embassy. I am the vice president of EG and I am a citizen of, and resident in, Malabo [the capital of Equatorial Guinea],” Obiang says.
“It remains inexplicable as to why the embassy of EG should be labelled my place of employment.
“I also found it dubious that, while jurisdiction was founded on my personal properties, not a single court process was ever delivered to my personal properties.”
Obiang also pointed out that court documents were in English, despite Spanish and French being the official languages of Equatorial Guinea.
Janse van Rensburg, who said he was aware of Obiang’s latest application, has the financial backing of litigation funder Sterling Rand. Its clients include Nkosana Makate, who successfully sued Vodacom over its “please call me” service.
Sterling Rand director Errol Elsdon said its lawyers had submitted a “substantial” response to Obiang and he was confident they would prevail in court.
In his responding affidavit, Janse van Rensburg accused Obiang of employing a “Stalingrad defence” involving multiple court delays, courtesy of his “almost unlimited wealth”.
He added: “The interminable delays in these proceedings, which arose out of a sequence of events commencing nearly a decade ago in Equatorial Guinea, must be taken into account in the exercise of the court’s discretion.”
Elsdon said his team had also prepared a dossier on Obiang’s alleged links to human rights violations which would be submitted to the International Criminal Court in The Hague.
Obiang, son of long-standing President Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mbasogo, has denied any such violations and insists his own rights are being violated in SA.
In January the Bishopscourt mansion was stripped of its furniture during an auction on the front patio.
$600m: Estimated net worth of President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo
R39.9m: Daniel Janse van Rensburg's damages claim, plus costs and 7% annual interest from June 2021
— IN NUMBERS
His Cape Town properties are on a long list of his assets already seized or earmarked for seizure around the world.
Other listed assets reportedly include a Parisian mansion seized by French authorities in 2012, a Malibu mansion, a Ferrari, a Lamborghini, a Bugatti, an Aston Martin and a 76m superyacht, Ebony Shine, seized in the Netherlands at the behest of the Swiss authorities.
The vessel visited Cape Town in 2020 before swiftly departing amid threats that it could be attached in relation to the South African case.
The Sunday Times was unable to reach Obiang this week via his South African attorney. Queries earlier this year to the Equatorial Guinea embassy also went unanswered.
However his views on the matter are contained in documents submitted to court during his many attempts to thwart Janse van Rensburg’s civil claim — a battle that went all the way to the Constitutional Court.
He denied any role in Janse van Rensburg’s imprisonment and said reports that his country’s judiciary had been dissolved were mere hearsay.
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