Marumo Gallants pair of Rufus Matsena, the club media liaison officer and Tebogo Amos Dhlomo, the club's physiotherapist has detailed their Libyan horror following their return to South Africa.
Matsena and Dhlomo were held against their will in Libya due to hotel and flights payment issues since playing their CAF Confederation Cup match against Al Akhdar on March 19.
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They ultimately returned on Monday following the intervention of government officials and SAFA amongst others in seeking to settle the matter with Dr Ali Elzargha, the hotel owner.
Abram Sello, the Marumo chairman explained that they struggled to secure flights due to the match being played during Ramadhan in a Muslim country (Libya).
This then led to them contacting Dr Ali Elzargha who they knew from their previous visit to the North African country but then there were issues with the inflated flights bill that they now had to settle when leaving.
"Hotel owner demanded additional amount and refused to explain what it was for and with financial rules complications this then led to the club failing to pay the balance," says Sello whose club also had issues at the same hotel last year.
For the man who stayed behind it was a straining three weeks.
"We were in a hotel, but the conditions were different in the sense that you don't have your freedom so that on its own took a toll on us.
"It took me nine solid days without sleeping.
"We have now been laid off for now to avoid being involved in football matters with the chairman seeking professional help which is very considerate.
"For our families they have never been to Libya, so they depend on Google and seeing buildings that are destroyed and they think 'this is it'.
"With food, it depended on their mood for the day and it most cases we ate only once a day.
"If they said take a picture, I would do it because I knew they wanted to create the impression that we are okay.
"We had to play along. The guy (Elzargha) is very temperamental.
"Every day, they'd ask you if the (Gallants) chairman said anything about payment and, as soon as you say no, you know the day is not going to be nice," says Matsena whose passport was withheld.
For Dhlomo he admits having felt uneasy.
"I would say we did feel our lives were in danger at some point.
"The experience affected me in a way that, when I saw that my family was no longer comfortable, then that's when I felt uncomfortable and that I was in danger.
"When you see how Benghazi is - vandalised buildings, the army - you will get scared. We don't see that often in South Africa," says Dlomo.
"Remember, the whole idea was to be there for a few days so that we sort out the payments and we join the team.
"But difficult as it might have been, something that made it to be bearable was the fact that 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 by the chairman transferring the money to us so that we can pay.
"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 journey 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 costs," adds Matsena.
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