Congolese top-side, TP Mazembe, was this morning forced to make last minute adjustments to their travel to Tanzania for a CAF fixture after the presidential secret service, ANR, blocked their chartered plane.
TP Mazembe face Young Africa of Tanzania and were due to fly out of Luano International Airport in Lubumbashi this morning.
The players and officials were stranded at the airport after their plane was denied landing rights for unspecified reasons.
TP Mazembe general manager Frédéric Kitengie Kinkumba says the request for authorization to use a charter was submitted to the Civil Aviation services in good time.
“It was therefore at the last minute that TP Mazembe had to start looking for places on a commercial flight to allow the team go to Dar Es Salaam National Stadium,” Kinkumba has said in a statement issued last night.
TP Mazembe had denounced the action as the greatest form of indignation which is deliberately orchestrated to sabotage the team’s participation in the CAF Confederation Cup.
“Despite this intolerable situation, TP Mazembe, its leaders and its players are more than ever determined to respond on the ground to the malicious acts of which they are the victims by bringing back a resounding victory from Benjamin Nkapa Stadium in Dar es Salaam,” Kinkumba declared.
He said the maneuvers of some authorities behind the scheme will not change the fact that Mazembe remains and will always be the greatest ambassador of the Democratic Republic of Congo in Africa and in the world.
