Marumo officials tell of torrid time as captives in Libya

Marumo Gallants official Rufus Matsena has revealed how he was fearing for his life after they were kept in Libya for three weeks following their CAF Confederation Cup match against Al-Akhdar.

Matsena and physiotherapist Tebogo Dhlomo made their return to the country yesterday morning after they remained in Libya to settle the R675,000 bill the club allegedly owed to Benghazi hotel owner Ali Elzargha.

Speaking at a press conference in Sandton today , Matsena said they had to endure some ill-discipline from Elzargha and some of the hotel staff during their stay.  

“One thing that started giving me doubts is the fact that when we arrived at the hotel, he [Elzargha] confiscated my passport,” Matsena told the media.

“So, that started raising eyebrows for me that there is something which is not right here. Then when we got the invoice, it came as one figure. It came to a point whereby when you were asking for an invoice, it was angering the guy.”

Matsena also said that they were forced to eat once a day and that the hot water from their two rooms was switched off completely.

“Before the team left we used to have water to bath, but shortly after the team left they closed the hot water for both me and Dhlomo. We had only cold water for the duration of our stay,” he said.

“And the weather there was not comfortable, so you can say to people these guys are comfortable here and stuff like that. I’m here to tell you straight, it was not comfortable at all and I would not wish anybody to be in the same situation.

“What we did was, anything that needed to happen now, let us not resist anything whatsoever. If they say take a picture with me and smile, let’s do that.

“I knew that they wanted to create a platform whereby they will force you to take a picture and send it to SA media so that people could be under the impression that we are okay.

“So we had to play along with the problem. If we had not been... the guy is very temperamental. Sometimes he will come to you and ask if the chairman [Abram Sello] said anything about the payment, immediately you say no, you know that day is not going to be nice."

Matsena is also grateful to the chairman, who has since arranged for professionals to help them, and he hopes he will be back to normal after that.

“It took me nine solid days without sleeping and we arrived here in South Africa on Monday and I still have the problem because even that day I didn't sleep. Food, especially for breakfast, depended on their mood for the day. In most cases, we ate once a day.”