Days of hell for yacht crew in Mozambique
Three SA men who strayed into ‘red zone’ were accused of being mercenaries or jihadist sympathisers
A yacht delivery from Zanzibar turned into a hell-ride for a South African crew captured by the Mozambican navy and held for a week under suspicion of being mercenaries or jihadists.
The three-member crew of the 56ft sailing yacht Equity last month accidentally strayed into a “no-go” coastal area controlled by Islamic State (Isis) militants terrorising parts of northern Mozambique.
The yacht was on its way to Durban and had changed course to avoid a strong current when the crew first noticed a ship bearing down on them.
“We thought, oh s**t, what have we got here — is this Isis or pirates?” said crew member Neville Bransby, 74, speaking to the Sunday Times from Durban this week where the crew is recuperating after their ordeal.
“Then I heard gunshots and shouted to the guys in the cabin below. They said, no, that is just the sound of thunder from the storm squall.”
In fact, they were warning shots from the Mozambican naval patrol boat manned by heavily armed and jittery soldiers who were unmoved by the crew’s friendly greeting.
Skipper and yacht owner Sean Roberts, 59, said their detour closer inshore was partly due to mechanical problems. “We were doing maybe five knots, and our gearbox had packed up as well — and yet the navy claimed we were trying to run away.”
After the navy boarded the yacht the South Africans were separated and interrogated, accused of being Islamic State sympathisers or gun-runners. When nothing suspicious was found aboard, the yacht was towed to Pemba where the crew was kept under “boat-arrest” for six days.
“We had five intense searches, the last one with three sniffer dogs,” said Bransby.
“They took out panels, ripped everything out. They took all our cellphones away and we were under armed guard 24/7.
“We weren’t allowed to go ashore and the skipper was interrogated for two full days and one night.
“At one stage we had 19 officials on board — everybody who could possibly be on the boat was on the boat. They kept asking, ‘where did you come from?’ We told them Zanzibar. They said, no, we must have come from Madagascar.”
Roberts said he had at one stage been manhandled by two soldiers carrying AK47 rifles, and interrogated constantly for twoand-a-half days. “I had two AKs in my back — I peed blood the next day.
“I just had to keep my head together — whatever they asked, you just answered. You can’t let them get under your skin,” Roberts said.
The officials refused to believe the yacht’s log book, which detailed their journey from Zanzibar. Neither would they believe that it was only a three-member crew. “They kept asking us, where are the others?” said Bransby, a well-known Durban-based sailor and member of Point Yacht Club.
“We were stuck. We didn’t know how long it would take [to be released] and our families were expecting us, or were expecting some communication — and there was none,” he recounted.
The Mozambicans also contacted Interpol, and the crew members were duly fingerprinted and photographed.
With food supplies running out on board, Roberts managed to contact his wife who, with help from a political acquaintance in Durban, was able to contact the South African military, which has a presence in Mozambique.
“Next thing we had a South African brigadier and a general come to our boat, and within half a day things really started moving,” Bransby said.
The crew was then allowed to go ashore, where they were instructed to pay a series of fines.
The experience was too much for the third crew member who was too rattled to continue the voyage, and flew back to South Africa from Pemba.
Bransby said the misunderstanding, and the frosty reception, was testimony to the tense security situation in northern Mozambique, specifically in Cabo Delgado province: “While we were under arrest there were 54 Mozambican soldiers killed in the war taking place there. It is very tense.
“We came through a security zone — right through where we shouldn’t have gone.”
After being allowed to resume their voyage, the crew had to detour again to avoid a violent gale that forced them to take shelter off Bazaruto Island, where they had to fork out more administrative fines.
More misfortune awaited them just 10 nautical miles from Richards Bay, where they encountered mechanical problems with one engine in the midst of a westerly gale, prompting a mayday call to the National Sea Rescue Institute.
“That part was so slick — they threw us a line and we were under way within five minutes. They towed us in without even a scratch.”
The ill-fated voyage provoked a warning this week from the Ocean Sailing Association of Southern Africa (Osasa), which advised cruising yachts to avoid the Cabo Delgardo “red zone” where al-Shabaab guerrillas, affiliated to Islamic State, have carried out several attacks, including on a tourist resort. The conflict is close to a $20bn (R380bn) offshore liquefied natural gas facility that is currently the largest foreign investment project in Africa.
“On the east coast, travelling down from Kenya/Tanzania towards South Africa — DO NOT venture near Cabo Delgado province, the northernmost province of Mozambique,” Osasa said in its newsletter alert this week. “This has been declared a red area, due to Isis and Islamic jihadi activity, and is not a good place to stop or linger.
“A South African boat that ignored the warnings was recently boarded by gunmen and held captive for several days — do not attempt to make landfall in Cabo Delgado.”
Bransby said he is unlikely to be making landfall in Mozambique for a long time. “I was recently asked if I wanted to do a race up there with the boys — I said I will be avoiding Mozambique like the plague.”
Roberts said the ordeal continued even after arriving back in Durban. “A week ago they [the Mozambican navy] phoned me from Pemba — I had to pay one more fine.”
He said their horror trip was indicative of a governance crisis in Mozambique, where just last week a South African charter vessel was found burnt-out on a deserted beach south of Inhaca Island: “The people are nice but the government is terrible … and it is starting to get worse and worse.”
This week the SANDF could not be reached for comment.