New Al-Ittihad SC head coach Rulani Mokwena has set the record straight on what really happened at the airport before his departure from Algeria, saying reports of him being “arrested” were “were blown completely out of proportion”.
On Tuesday evening, Mokwena was announced as new Al-Ittihad had coach, while he and his technical team arrived in Tripoli on Wednesday.
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However, there was a delay in their travels, as Mokwena was detained at the Houari Boumediene Airport on Sunday after being found with too much cash, with the North African country having strict laws regarding taking currency out of the country.
Mokwena was found with $15 000, according to Algerian journalist Nazim Bessol, which is double the allowed figure in Algeria. However, his case was swiftly dealt with on Monday and he received a two-months suspended prison sentence before being able to fly to Libya via Istanbul.
On Tuesday evening, while in transit, Mokwena told his side of the story to Robert Marawa on Radio 947.
“We were on our way to Istanbul, myself and three other staff members,” he explained.
“And I felt a little bit guilty that I was the only one booked into business class. We then got to the airport, we went to the airline and we were told we could upgrade the seats for the staff at the counter.
“So we got to the counter – to cut a very long story short – we got to the counter and then we were told we could only pay cash.
“We then tried to get some cash to pay, just to upgrade the seats and after we were told we had to do it online. We then tried to do it online it was then rejected because it had shut down or the time lapsed, whatever the reason maybe.
“And then we were still stuck with the cash. There was four of us and there was no one else that we could hand over the (money) to and that was the scenario.
“But I don’t know if you can steal your salary or money that you’ve worked very, very hard for nine months, you know.
“How do I work for a club, get a salary paid and I still have to declare that I work? I think the public knows that I was the head coach of Mouloudia in Algeria; number one in the championship, we just won the Super Cup,”
“And I think the people know that I was [working], unless I was rendering my services for free and I’m not so sure that was what was going on, you know.
“So how do you declare something that is of public knowledge? I don’t know how more to explain this to… but it is what it is. It’s not like I’m not a public figure working in a space where you’ve got to declare it if people are unaware of the facts.
“They knew we had the currency… It’s a complicated situation with employment regulations, especially for foreigners in Algeria. You can ask players like Khanyisa Mayo how it works there.
“We couldn’t re-deposit the money, so we were caught [with the cash] and as the head coach of the group and I’m responsible for being in possession of it.
“Even more interesting was the fact that in terms of the legalities it was said that the maximum that a foreigner could leave the country with was 5,000 [US Dollars] but if you multiply 5,000 times four is more or less 20,000 and the money was way less than 20,000.
“But it is what it is you know and things were blown completely out of proportion.”
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