A combination of oil, luxury property investments and behind-the-scenes African diplomacy had more to do with Simon Mann’s release than anything that his own government could have done. Call it a deal, an understanding, a nod or a wink, but however you put it the release of Mann and his accomplices suits a number of interested parties very nicely.

In 2005 62 black South African mercenaries finished their sentences — served in Zimbabwe, where they were arrested — for their part in the alleged coup attempt in Equatorial Guinea. Since then South Africa has been quietly working to free four of its white citizens, held with Mann, in the notorious Black Beach prison in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea.

Both sides wanted the issue cleared up before President Zuma arrived in Equatorial Guinea today on a state visit. He will be accompanied by his energy, foreign and state security ministers — the biggest delegation to visit the country — with the aim of strengthening ties. “South Africa is keen to promote economic relations in the areas of agriculture, mining, energy, tourism and infrastructure development,” the President’s office said yesterday.

South Africa, which faces a critical shortage of energy, particularly wants oil and gas deals and the rights to exploit suspected mineral riches on land. The flip side is that most of Equatorial Guinea’s ruling elite — particularly its “first family” — have huge investments in South Africa, including properties in Cape Town, Johannesburg and Pretoria. President Obiang is a regular visitor.

South Africa was deeply angered at being used as yet another springboard for yet another coup against a fellow African nation — Mann implicated Thabo Mbeki’s Government in his “confession”. But even while backing Mann’s extradition to Equatorial Guinea it quietly pushed for a proper trial, receiving an unofficial assurance that the Briton would not receive the death sentence and would go home early if he told all. In this it got the support of the US, President Obiang’s closest ally since his country found its vast oil reserves.

The South Africans also argued that the plot was orchestrated in Britain and Spain by big financiers, backed unofficially by their governments, to get access to oil reserves because too much was going to the US, and the mercenaries were small fish in a big pond.

For its part, Equatorial Guinea, for years a pariah state because of an appalling human rights record (even by sub-Saharan Africa standards) now receives the international attention it craves but rarely gets from its neighbours, jealous of its oil. It also gets more friends in Western capitals, who desperately want to move on from the affair and gain access to a number of massive infrastructure projects, such as building a major deep sea port.

South Africa will back Equatorial Guinea in any disputes that it has with other African states, both in the United Nations and within bodies such as the African Union.

President Zuma gets to show that he lobbies as intensively for white South Africans as black even when those South Africans are seen as a legacy of apartheid. South Africa has long provided havens for the “dogs of war”. For years a motley collection of adventurers, arm dealers, sanction busters, diamond smugglers and fighters traded on the continent’s unfailing supply of civil wars, coups and counter coups.

It was into this pool that Mann and others were able to dip for volunteers. Their adventure has finally ended.

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