Police out in numbers for derby
The SA Police Service will significantly increase its presence at Saturday’s Kaizer Chiefs vs Orlando Pirates Absa Premiership Soweto derby in reaction to the crime at the Global Citizen concert in December.
The Global Citizen Festival Mandela 100 concert on December 2 descended into chaos afterwards as concert-goers outside the stadium waiting for hours for taxis were preyed upon by pickpockets and thieves with guns and knives.
Booysens police station’s Captain Lorraine van Emmerick said the police would be deployed inside and outside the stadium. “We have put our deployment of personnel to the maximum‚” she said.
“We have a dedicated group of detectives who will be in our charge office‚ in our [on-site] community service centre.
“We also have undercover members of Crime Intelligence who will be observing and from there we will react to anything happening.
“We have members who will be deployed in the parking spaces‚ at the Sasol garage‚ at Nasrec Expo Centre.
“Members will patrol in the stadium. We have got members from Public Order Policing and from our provincial office.
“A soft target for Global Citizen was the Sasol garage. We will have an Nyala [armoured car] placed there‚ and so will [Johannesburg Metro Police Department].”
Stadium Management SA managing director Bertie Grobbelaar said cellphone companies had undertaken to boost their signal around the stadium on Saturday.
He said fake ticket-sellers and buyers were also being targeted by police.