Marumo Gallants media liaison and communications manager Rufus Matsena has described his harrowing experience of being couped up in a Libyan hotel for three weeks.
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The reason for their retention was due to outstanding payments as Matsena described, which in turn saw the Libyan hotel owner confiscate their passports making it impossible to leave before the matter was resolved.
Thanks to intervention from the Department of Sports, Arts, Culture and Recreation as well as the South African Football Association, the duo were released.
Matsena as well as Amos Dhlomo were held in a Libyan hotel for a total of 21 days before they were released and arrived in South Africa on Monday.
Speaking about his ordeal, Matsena described the conditions they had to endure over the three weeks.
"You know, I wouldn't know where to start. I remember like I indicated before that the whole idea was for us to be there for two to three days. The the idea was that the Chairman had to pay into our accounts, we go to the foreign exchange. I would say, then withdraw the money, get it into dollars and pay the hotel. But with the hotel itself, we had cash that we were carrying myself and Mr Dhlomo. That we needed to pay for the hotel. That one was settled, there was no problem. So, the issue was more on the flight tickets. The prices were not that clear. I went to the hotel owner because he's the one who bought the ticket, trying to understand when can we get an invoice and then send it to the President to our Chairman so that he can make payments for that," he told journalists at a press briefing in Sandton.
Asked about the conditions of the hotel Matsena said they were made to shower with cold water and sometimes had only one meal a day depending on the mood of the owner.
"In our rooms, we used to have water to wash and stuff like that. Shortly after the team left, for both me and Mr Dhlomo, they closed [the] hot water. We had only cold water. For the duration of our stay. And the weather there was not comfortable. So if you can say to people and say no, these guys are comfortable here and stuff like that, I'm here to tell you straight. It wasn't comfortable. It wasn't comfortable at all, and I really wish anybody to be in the same situation," he said.
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