Mercenary Niek Du Toit says the South African intelligence services knew of the planned bid to topple the Equatorial Guinea government but did nothing to stop the operation.

In an interview with the Rapport newspaper, du Toit says they knew about the coup bid six months before and therefore approved of the operation by virtue of doing nothing to stop it.

Du Toit, coup leader Simon Mann and three other South Africans were released from the notorious Black Beach Prison earlier this month after five years behind bars.

In the exclusive interview, du Toit says South African intelligence agencies gave their tacit approval for the coup because they wanted to get the financiers behind it.

“I was told personally that they wanted to get the people behind us, the financiers and that they wanted us to continue so that they could get these people rather than just arrest people who were just pawns in the hands of British and other people,” he said.