Rulani Mokwena gives the picture of what transpired in North Africa as reports of him being arrested surfaced as he left MC Alger for Libyan club

Rulani Mokwena has given a personal account of the events which transpired in Algeria as he was leaving for neighbouring country Libya over the past two days.

Mokwena had left Algeria’s MC Alger for Libyan side Al-Ittihad and he reports emerged that he was arrested and fined as a consequence, for carrying above limit of cash in foreign currency.

Having arrived in Tripoli, Libya’s capital, Mokwena spoke to a South African radio station sports show, MSW with Marawa, where he gave an account of everything.

“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.”