The four people arrested on suspicion of sabotaging the Cahora Bassa dam in Mozambique were only trying to cleanse the water in an esoteric ritual akin to Feng Shui, according to the wife of one of those arrested.

“My husband has been in jail now for 17 days and it is for nothing,” Friederike Ritschl said.

She said her German husband Georg, who had been a South African resident for 11 years, and three others, had been part of a project to revive the “stale” water in the dam when they were mistakenly suspected of attempting to sabotage the turbines.

The others had been identified as South African Joseph Ngwato, Botswana national Tino Phuthego and Portuguese national Carlos da Silva.

She explained they travelled to a lodge at the Cahora Bassa dam on April 11.

“The idea was to go with the own boat up the dam to Zumbo and back and drop Orgonite pieces all the way, to improve the quality of etheric energy (life force) of the dam.”

The mixture of resin and iron filings was put into a cupcake mould and, according to their website, was distributed at places in southern Africa as gifts to the community.

They believed the Orgonite, which they also placed under cellphone towers, created a better “vibe” in a community and could lead to increased harmony.

They took the material to Cahora Bassa because it “brings out the water’s life energy”.

“It revitalises the water... it’s a very subtle thing,” she said, likening it to the Feng Shui process of creating good energy — known as “qi” to followers of esoteria.

According to a website run by advocates of this practice, they also do “cloud busting” — a technique believed to bring rain to drought-stricken areas.

However, on this mission, Georg had to stay at the lodge to repair their Land Rover which had broken down.

The three had carried on with the journey on a ferry to complete their task and were returning when they and Georg were arrested on April 21.

She denied that her architect husband was a soldier as reported.

Their lawyer Herminio Mhatumbo said they were in custody in Tete facing an initial accusation of sabotage, but were waiting for laboratory tests which would indicate whether the case would proceed.

“They want to know if it is poison or it can kill animals, people,” said Mhatumbo.

Meanwhile, a Sapa correspondent in Mozambique reported that Ngwato said he was hired as a tour guide.

He told Radio Mozambique on Thursday: “I was merely invited into that expedition and I’m not the man who was leading that entire project, I refer all questions to the leaders...”

Ngwato, who called himself a prophet, said he went with hotellier Da Silva and pilot Phuthelo for the project.

Police said the four had allegedly attempted to put the Orgonite in the turbines of the dam on the Zambezi River.

Their equipment had included a speed boat and Global Positioning System.

Experts at the Eduardo Mondlane University described Orgonite as a mixture of scrap metal filings from machine shops and plastic resin.

They said it can be very complex in construction, going from simple scrap metals all the way to expensive crystals and precious metals.

Meanwhile, Cahora Bassa management said it was not informed of the alleged foreign plot to destroy the hydro-electric dam.

Mozambique national news agency, AIM, quoted Paulo Muxanga chairman of the dam operating company HCB as saying: “This came as a complete surprise to us. At no time did the police tell us the dam was under threat”.

Muxanga added that he had first heard about the supposed plot from the media reports.

National television channel, Televisao de Mozambique (TVM) said on Thursday that President Armando Guebuza had called for calm to let the police do their work.

“It’s serious issue, (and) let the relevant and competent institutions work. At the moment, we cannot advance with anything before we come to any conclusion which can lead us to what really happened”, said Guebuza.

Police said they had confiscated 500kg of the substance.

Cahora Bassa, which produces 2075MW short of its potential of 14,000MW of power, is touted as one of the solutions to the power crisis in the Southern African Development Community region.

The dam supplies power to South Africa, Mozambique and Malawi, with plans to connect Botswana, Tanzania and Swaziland.

Sapa