Johannesburg - Daniel Janse van Rensburg broke down repeatedly as he spoke about his incarceration in the notorious Black Beach prison in Equatorial Guinea.
“You feel like an animal, because everything is behind a fence. They give you food through the fence, it’s like a zoo,” he said during a Skype media briefing on Thursday.
Janse van Rensburg, 49, landed in Joburg on Sunday after two horrifying years in prison. He was jailed in Equatorial Guinea after an aviation contract with former Malabo mayor Gabriel Mba Bela Angabi went sour.
Angabi cancelled the aviation contract he had with Janse van Rensburg and had him thrown in jail when he couldn’t pay him his money back immediately.
Janse van Rensburg was found not guilty by a court, but was again thrown into prison when Angabi’s men had him hauled off a plane that was headed back to South Africa in December 2013. He was later released, then rearrested a third time.
Janse van Rensburg described how he had almost no contact with family and friends.
“In the beginning you go through a very, very dark time. We managed to get some letters out, but even that we had to smuggle out.”
He also described the extreme hunger and thirst he endured and how he suffered from typhoid and malaria while incarcerated.
“Whenever your mind gets negative, you get sick. You just slide backwards and start feeling sorry for yourself.”
He eventually joined a church group to help him cope.
“I didn’t understand a lot of what they were saying most of the time. Just being around other Christians (made me) realise I’ve got to stay positive, I’ve got to stay strong because there’s family that’s depending on me.”
Despite numerous appearances before Equatorial Guinean judges, Janse van Rensburg never had charges laid against him.
“There was no case against me, that was the incredible part. When we got to the chief justice… he was flabbergasted (and) apologised. He said they couldn’t find any legal reason for me to be in jail.”
Janse van Rensburg, who lives in Hoekwil, near George in the Western Cape, flew to the town’s airport on Sunday night, where he was reunited with his wife Melanie, one of his two children, Abigail, and his parents. He said it still hadn’t sunk in that he was home.
“I wake up in the morning, my wife next to me and the dog almost on top of me, looking out onto the garden. It feels like I’m dreaming still.”
Melanie, who joined him for the interview, could hardly keep her eyes off her husband as he spoke. “Now that he’s with me, it’s like a dream,” she said in Afrikaans, adding that she desperately wanted to make up for lost time.
“I just want to stare at him, I’m also struggling to sleep, because I have that excitement the whole time. I’m just very, very happy now.”
She added: “When Daniel climbed onto that plane, it was such a relief. I cried from happiness.”
Janse van Rensburg is going for counselling and is looking for a contingency attorney to take on his case. “I’ve got to relax and get my strength back again and get my family healed,” he said.
@Gabi_Falanga
The Star