Two South African football club officials who were detained in a Libyan hotel for nearly three weeks over a payment dispute said they feared for their lives during the ordeal.
“You will be scared when you see how Benghazi is – vandalized buildings, the army.” “It’s not something we see very often in South Africa,” physio Tebogo Amos Dhlomo told journalists on Tuesday.
The pair had accompanied Marumo Gallant’s football club players to a continental cup match against Al Akhdar SC in Benghazi.
According to South African media reports, they were detained at the hotel following the match due to outstanding payments.
It’s unclear what the dispute was about, but according to news24, a club official blamed difficulties in electronic payment systems for the payments being made in cash.
According to other reports, the dispute was settled thanks to the intervention of the South African sports ministry.
Mr. Dhlomo and his media manager, Rufus Matsena, returned home on Sunday but recounted their ordeal at a press conference attended by government officials on Tuesday.
