Gallants Media Officer – I Don’t Wish This On Anyone

Marumo Gallants Media Liaison Officer Rufus Matsena says he doesn’t wish what happened to him and his colleague Amos Dhlomo on anyone.

Matsena and Dhlomo were detained in a Libyan hotel for 21 days due to a payment dispute between the club and the hotel owner after their CAF Confederations Cup match against Al Akdar last month.

The pair landed in the country on Monday following the intervention of the Department of International Relations (DIRCO) and were part of a press conference this morning to clarify what happened.

Matsena told the media that he and Dhlomo took one for the team saying watching Bahlabane ba Ntwa do well in the matches on the return made their stay in North Africa bearable.

“It wasn’t easy. Remember the whole idea was to be there for a few days so that we sort out the payments and we join the team,” Matsena told the media.

“But difficult as it might have been something that made it to be a bit bearable was the fact we sacrificed for our boys to come and play in South Africa. And we stayed behind so that we can have a system of paying Libyans and stuff like that.

“The chairman transferred money so that we can pay. But like I said it was made to be bearable in a way because the team that we sacrificed for, they came to the country and they played three games.

“If you can remember we played a CAF game, we played Royal AM and Kaizer Chiefs, and all three games they never lost the games. So it was a plus to us – difficult as it was.

The administrator also thanked everyone who supported them while they were in Benghazi, especially the media.

“And besides that, the support that we got from all walks of life be it media, be it families, friends, and even people that we actually didn’t know they supported us through and through.

“We’d like to thank everybody for the effort that they put in. To the media in particular thank you, guys. I mean you put it out there so that people should be aware of what’s going on. We really appreciate it.

“There are so many people that we need to acknowledge DIRCO was there, SAFA was there, but I wouldn’t wish that somebody could go through the same thing.

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“But fortunately, we’ve got the ministry and we’ve got the federation and I hope moving forward things like this can be avoided at all cost.”