The Wonga Coup
Authors: Adam Roberts
*
Coup
âAdam Roberts shows, with merciless precision, how the dogs of war panicked where they should have been cool, and screwed up where they should have been clinically efficient' â
Observer
âImpressively researched and briskly narrated ⦠takes readers into a world where slippery chancers and thuggish ex-special forces types, mostly South African, rub shoulders with the spooks and dodgy financiers' â
Daily Mail
âThe most terrifying thing about this chronicle of a failed coup attempt in Equatorial Guinea is that it's not a Graham Greene novel but a true story. An irresistibly lurid tale ⦠he lifts the curtain to the backrooms of power in postcolonial Africa' â
Publishers Weekly
âA fact-stranger-than-fiction tale ⦠the author has amassed impressive, and readable, detail about the plot, its costs and its personalities' â
Financial Times
â
The Wonga Coup
is a forceful example of how a group of rapacious Europeans can hatch a fantastic plan to overthrow a foreign government, gain the tacit support of Western officials â not to mention international corporations â and fully expect to succeed in executing their grandiose vision' â
New York Times
ADAM ROBERTS
works for
The Economist
in London. He was Johannesburg bureau chief at the magazine for four years.
Simon Mann's Plot to Seize Oil Billions in Africa
ADAM ROBERTS
To E and to M
This revised edition published in 2009
First published in Great Britain in 2006 by
PROFILE BOOKS LTD
3
A
Exmouth House
Pine Street
Exmouth Market
London EC1R 0JH
Copyright © Adam Roberts, 2006, 2009
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Typeset in Palatino by MacGuru Ltd
[email protected]
Printed and bound in Great Britain by
Bookmarque Ltd, Croydon, Surrey
The moral right of the author has been asserted.
All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the publisher of this book.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN 978 1 84668 234 6
PART TWO:
The Three Hundred Days
Locations of the Wonga Coup, Africa and Europe, 2004
Selected characters, by location, as of Sunday 7 March 2004.
Zimbabwe
Harry Carlse | Ex-special forces soldier and former Executive Outcomes employee. Fought beside Simon Mann (below) in Angola; also in Iraq. Ex-nightclub bouncer, assistant to Mann. South African. a.k.a. The Enforcer. |
Victor Dracula | Decorated soldier of 32 Battalion, long fought in Angola. Naturalised South African. |
Simon Mann | Ex-Executive Outcomes and SAS. Active notably in Angolan war in early 1990s. Mastermind of the Wonga Coup. Old Etonian and friend of many others involved. British/South African. a.k.a. Captain F. |
J. Samukange | Lawyer and aspiring politician. Zimbabwean. |
Niel Steyl | Ex-Executive Outcomes in Angola. Grey-haired pilot of Boeing 727 for Indian tycoon. Brother of Crause Steyl (see below, Canary Islands). South African. |
Simon Witherspoon | Ex-special forces soldier and professional hunter. South African. |
South Africa
James Kershaw | Mann's young administrative assistant. Friend of Morgan and friend of Smith (below). South African. |
Nigel Morgan | Intelligence trader and |
Johann Smith | Intelligence trader close to governments of Equatorial Guinea and South Africa. Ex-military intelligence. South African. a.k.a. Peg Leg. |
Sir Mark Thatcher | Businessman and friend of Mann and Morgan. Financier of helicopter intended by others for use in coup plot. Son of Baroness Thatcher. British. a.k.a. Scratcher. |
Equatorial Guinea
âBones' Boonazier | Ex-sergeant major in South African army. Worked for du Toit (below) in Equatorial Guinea. South African. First name Marthinus. a.k.a. Bones. |
Sergio Cardoso | Ex-South African special forces and mercenary. Thought to be second in command to du Toit. Sao Tomean. |
Nick du Toit | Ex-South African special forces. Arms dealer and friend of Mann. Front man in Equatorial Guinea. South African. a.k.a. Niek, Nicky, Nik. |
Gerhard Merz | Aviation broker, business partner of du Toit and chemical weapons trader. German. |
Obiang Nguema | Long-standing president of Equatorial Guinea, nephew of Macias (see below). Equatorial Guinean. |
Macias Nguema | Ex-president and genocidal dictator of Equatorial Guinea (1968â79). Equatorial Guinean. |
Teodorin Nguema | Elder son of, and likely successor to, Obiang. Playboy. Equatorial Guinean. |
Armengol Nguema | Younger brother of Obiang and business partner of du Toit. Equatorial Guinean. |
Spain and Canary Islands
Severo Moto | Trained priest. Aspiring president of Equatorial Guinea, exiled in Madrid. Friend of Ely Calil (see United Kingdom, below). |
Crause Steyl | Pilot. Ex-Executive Outcomes. Brother of Niel Steyl and friend of Mann. Self-confessed plotter of the Wonga Coup. South African. |
David Tremain | Businessman. Friend of Mann and alleged financier and coup plotter. Wanted in South Africa. British. |
Greg Wales | Accountant. Ex-Executive Outcomes. Friend of Mann and fellow plotter. Wanted in South Africa. British. a.k.a. Oil Slick, Charles Burrows. |
United Kingdom
Jeffrey Archer | Novelist, politician, member of the House of Lords and convicted perjurer. Accused of putting funds into Mann's bank account a few days before the launch of the coup. British. |
Ely Calil | Tycoon and friend of Moto, Archer, Mandelson, Mann and Thatcher. Well-connected in west Africa. Accused by Equatorial Guinea of being the chief financier of the plot. LebaneseâNigerian. a.k.a Khalil, Smelly, the Cardinal. |
Frederick Forsyth | Bestselling novelist; author of |
France
Henry Page | Lawyer for the government of Equatorial Guinea, based in Paris. British. |