A section of Ghanaian supporters travelling to Cabinda, where the Black Stars of Ghana are based for the 27th Africa Cup of Nations, were left stranded on arrival at the Johannesburg and Luanda airports on Friday.
The supporters, mostly members of the All for One Supporters Union, were travelling to watch Ghana�s opening match against La Cote D�Ivoire but were denied by circumstances beyond their control.
Checks from the affected supporters and officials of South Africa airlines at the Oliver Tambo Airport in Johannesburg revealed that the affected supporters, including one reporter, were only booked for Accra to Johannesburg with stand-by-tickets.
What that meant was that the affected persons must cough an amount of 345 US dollars to be booked for the journey to Angola in the next available flight or wait for the following day (Saturday) to continue. In the face of that financial difficulty, two of the fans were left with no option but sleep on the metal chairs at the Oliver Tambo Airport in Johannesburg for another 24 hours, having travelled for close to eight hours from Accra via Lagos.
At the 4th February (4 de FEVEREIRO) International Airport in Luanda, the group was confronted with difficulties with clearance of luggage and connection to Cabinda, the match venue.
This reporter spent more than three hours in vain looking for his luggage. In the end, a report was lodged with the authorities. With another whopping amount of 150 dollars on their heads for a flight to Cabinda, the thought of going by road came up but it appeared the incident, which happened there just before the commencement of the tournament with Togo. The ambitions of the Ghanaians to watch the match became a mirage when they received the news that there was no flight to Cabinda on the day.
The group then embarked on an expedition to locate the Ghana Mission in the country to find solace as none of the average rated hotels or guest houses quoted anything less than 400 dollars per night.
But that became a nightmare as it took over three hours to located the residence and finally had shelter.
<<Print>>