[imagesource: Merjin de Waard / SuperYacht Times]

The luxury superyacht worth about R300 million, reportedly owned by Equatorial Guinea’s vice-president, was seized at the V&A Waterfront in Cape Town where it was docked for repairs.

This was following the Cape Town court crackdown on Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue as a part of the years-long legal battle involving the said ‘playboy’ VP and South African businessman Daniel Janse van Rensburg.

Daniel was unlawfully arrested and sent to the central African country’s notorious Black Beach prison in 2013 and 2014, emerging “permanently physically impaired and psychologically shattered”.

In 2021, Daniel won a R40 million legal damages claim against Teddie, whom he held responsible for his traumatic jail time.

The court was set to seize two homes and a superyacht that belonged to Teddie to pay for the damages claim.

TimesLIVE reported that the sheriff of the high court in Cape Town was instructed to sell the superyacht, named Blue Shadow, at a judicial auction to realise the outstanding damages claim in terms of the writ of execution.

But on Sunday, Blue Shadow sailed away from Cape Town, released as it was apparently “unlawfully attached”. Maritime Support Ltd, a private company registered in the Marshall Islands, is now considering a damages claim in relation to the unlawful attachment:

…the vessel was released after a response from a Cape Town legal firm representing Maritime Support. “On February 10, 2023 the owners of the vessel requested from Daniel Janse van Rensburg the supporting evidence or documents which led them to this unlawful action but none were provided, only a response on February 16 to concede to the release of the vessel,” Maritime Support said in a statement.

“The vessel was formally released on February 21 and has now departed after great financial and reputational prejudice caused by this unlawful action.

After Blue Shadow was attached at the V&A Waterfront, Daniel reportedly relinquished his claim to the yacht and withdrew the legal action based on pragmatic considerations relating to sensitive issues.

He said that he did not want to be the possible cause of the incarceration of two South Africans working in Equatorial Guinea, detained on alleged drug charges.

However, there is reason to believe that the yacht really is Teddie’s:

A spokesman representing Daniel Janse van Rensburg said documents found aboard the vessel, together with statements from crew members, supported their contention that the yacht in truly belongs to Teodorin Obiang.

Meanwhile, the ‘playboy’ son of Equatorial Guinea President Teodoro Obiang, who leads a lavish lifestyle and chronicles it all on social media, was happy to boast about the yacht being released from Cape Town:

La imagen de la felicidad. El barco del Ministerio de Defensa saliendo del puerto de Cape Town para #GuineaEcuatorial pic.twitter.com/4ncK0xUleq

— teddy nguema (@teonguema) February 26, 2023

As you can see the Twitter account purporting to be that of Teddie is claiming that Blue Shadow belongs to the defence ministry in Equatorial Guinea.

If Daniel’s account is anything to go by, Teddie should have had hell to pay.

[source:timeslive]