Dozens of South Africans - mostly Liverpool fans - trying to travel to Kiev for the European Champions League soccer final on Saturday have been left stranded by visa chaos at the Ukraine embassy in Pretoria.
Some could lose R100,000 in travel costs should they not get their visas.
Two travel companies said the embassy's visa application system had not allowed for the huge demand from fans travelling to the final between Liverpool and Real Madrid at Kiev's NSC Olimpiyskiy Stadium.
A representative of a tour operator said: "When you try to book online for an appointment, the first dates are in June.
"There's one person doing the visas. They start at 9am and finish at noon, and give everyone 15 minutes, so can only see 12 people [a day]."
A CEO of a travel agency said his company could have sold 40 packages, but because of the difficulty in obtaining visas, it was successful with only two. The agency, that asked not to be named for fear of reprisals, began inquiring about visas soon after Liverpool won the first leg of their semifinal against Roma 5-2 on April 24, but the embassy "kept telling us to call back".The cost of travel packages (flights, accommodation and match tickets) rose from R50,000 to R70,000, and clients pulled out.
Some travel companies even tried to go through the Ukrainian embassy in Mozambique.
Four Durban soccer fans are hoping to get visas in their last appointment at the embassy on Tuesday. They did not want to be named for fear of harming their chances. They have been in Johannesburg since Tuesday and hope to fly to Kiev on Wednesday.
They flew to Johannesburg on Tuesday, informed by their visa agent that they had an appointment. They had to pay R20,000 to stay longer, at a hotel, and to buy clothes.
They fear they will lose the R100,000 each they have spent on their non-refundable packages.
On Thursday, one of the men was called into the visa office. He said the official told him his Kiev hotel booking was not there, even though a voucher was presented. He went outside to obtain another document but when he returned the embassy official had closed the window.
'STRUGGLE IS REAL'
The men's agent at Global Visa, Andrisha Naidoo, said: "The struggle is real at the Ukraine embassy. I know a lot of agents having this difficulty.
"It's not even an issue of the embassy wanting to help. They don't want to help. They'll issue about six visas in four hours.
"There are visa agents with 20 or 30 passports waiting outside. Some applicants from Cape Town and Durban have been there for days."
Derrick Naidoo flew from Durban to Johannesburg on Wednesday, made the R1,820 emergency visa payment by EFT, and was told to bring his printed proof of payment on Thursday morning.
He arrived, gave in the proof of payment, and was asked to produce his documents.
"I just bent down to unzip my bag to get them and the official said to me, 'You don't have the documents, you're not going to the Ukraine. Go away or I'll call the police'," Naidoo said.
Naidoo, who booked privately, has paid R34,000 for his trip.
The Ukraine embassy could not be reached for comment yesterday...