LISTEN | Sundowns fan speaks on stadium heroic rescue of foe

“Please don’t kill me, I’m a father of three.” This is how an Esperance Sportive de Tunis fan reacted when a Mamelodi Sundowns supporter arrived to rescue him while he hung on a railing metres above the ground during post-match clashes between rival supporters at Loftus Versfeld Stadium in Tshwane on Tuesday.

The man had run from the Esperance supporter’s stands and clung to the railing as his countrymen were being chased by Sundowns fans. He hung there for a while as missiles were thrown in his direction.    

Siboniso Masango, 28, a Sundowns supporter from Centurion, saw the man hanging precariously from the rail and rushed to save him.

“I rushed to him and [when I got to him] he said to me: ‘Please don’t kill me, I’m a father of three.’ He thought I was there to finish him off. He was also about to lose his grip because his hands and the railing were wet as a result of rain earlier,” Masango said.

Despite some Tunisian fans – presumably thinking he was trying to injure their countryman – throwing bottles at him, Masango persisted in rescuing the man.

He said he couldn’t watch the man die in front of him over a game of football. “I held his wrist to help him with balancing on the railing. I then told him to relax [and] that I would pull [him up] by his backpack and I wouldn’t let him go," said Masango.

"We tried a couple of times until he was over the railing. He said to me: ‘Thank you, you saved my life. I will give you whatever you want’.”

He said he took the man to paramedics, and they exchanged cellphone numbers. He said the man promised to chat with him once he lands in Tunisia on Thursday.

Masango said he was overwhelmed with emotion when he saw videos of his rescue on social media on Wednesday morning.  “For me, everything was normal after [the incident], but when I saw the video from friends in the morning, I shed a tear as I realised what I did,” he said.

Another Sundowns fan, Tshepo Mokoena, told Power 98.7 host Thabiso Tema Tunisian fans were rude as they taunted Masandawana supporters at the gates before kickoff.

Sundowns supporters coordinator Cedrick Moema said he got injured while trying to separate the two groups. “We were on the soccer pitch celebrating with our fans when the whole thing started,” he said.

“When it became violent, the announcer called for calm, but it got more physical. We then went to that section [of the stadium] and during that, I was assaulted. I was also stabbed in the back, and I don’t know with what object. My head is also swollen.”

Provincial police spokesperson Col Dimakatso Nevhuhulwi said 13 people were reported injured and a case of public violence was registered, but no-one was arrested. 

SowetanLIVE