Mamelodi Sundowns supporter Siboniso Masango opened up on the his heroic act, which has likely saved the life of an Esperance Sportive de Tunis fans on Tuesday.
Masandawana’s 1-0 win over the Tunisian giants was overshadowed by chaos that broke out in the stands after the final whistle, with both sets of fans seen fighting each other, with water bottles, flares, parts of seats and security gates being thrown at each other.
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The ugly scenes ended with Esperance’s supporters being escorted to the field for safety reasons, before they were escorted out of the stadium via busses.
While Sundowns are yet to make an official statement, ES Tunis released a statement saying they will lodge a complaint with CAF and that three of their supporters needed to be hospitalised.
Amid all the chaos there was one heroic act which caught the eye of many South Africans and neutral when a Sundowns fan saved a Esperance fan from falling down the stands – and Masandawana fan by the name of Siboniso Masango now spoke about the whole situation.
“Yesterday was just insane. After yesterday I went home and I slept like on a normal day. I woke the next morning and only after speaking to my friends, to my friends – ‘do you realise what you did?'” he said on the Pitchside Podcast.
“Only then do I see the video, someone took a video from the bottom and you just see how high up that man was. But only now as the day progressed I realise ‘Ok, wow. This is insane’.
“But in that moment it was just adrenalin. As a football fan that’s not what you want to see, no matter the differences, the right thing to do in that moment is to help someone.
“I ran, there were people in front of me just watching in shock. I ran because I saw what was happening.”
Masango then spoke through his act, saying the Esperance fan he wanted to make him fall.
“As he was hanging by the railing, it was raining actually during the day, it was still wet, so he was slowly losing his grip. He ran and the first thing I did was grab his forearm,” he added.
“I grab his forearm to help him just balance, adjust his grip and hold on properly. In that moment as I do it, he says to me ‘please, please my brother, don’t do it, I have three kids’.
“That’s what went through his mind, [he thought] ‘you are about to finish me off’. He pleaded, ‘please, please my brother don’t do it’.
“I said to him ‘no, no don’t worry, I won’t let you go’. I told him ‘I’m going to try lift your bag, as I’m pulling your bag, try to lift up your knees, so you can lift your legs over the barrier’.
“Did that a couple of times, eventually got it right and pulled him up. Went straight to the back, we both broke down in tears. In that moment, you’re looking at a man, who is sitting there and saying ‘I’m a father of three kids, please don’t do it’. He is thinking ‘omg, this guy is going to kill me’.
“The crazy thing is, even in that moment, as I’m trying to help this person, I’m still being attacked. I’m helping someone else but I’m still being attacked, bottles are being thrown at me.
“But then we went to the back, offered him some water and we both had a heartfelt moment. He was just saying ‘Thank you so, so much’.”
You can watch the full interview with Mr. Masango on the Pitchside Podcast.
