Ellis Park disaster
We mark 20 years since the Ellis Park disaster that left 43 fans dead and reveal how, two decades on, noone has yet taken responsibility for the tragedy.
The Ellis Park disaster remains a dark stain in South Africa’s sporting history, a tragic event that was completely avoidable and for which no-one has ever taken responsibility, or faced the consequences of their actions. As we reflect on the 20-year anniversary of that fateful Soweto Derby, KICK OFF’s Mark Gleeson lists the blunders by officials, born out of greed, and the aftermath for those affected.
The report of the Ngoepe Commission runs to 130 pages. That is almost three pages for each of the victims of the Ellis Park disaster, which the commission was created to investigate, and about as much acknowledgement as they are ever going to officially get.
Twenty years ago this month, on April 11 to be precise, 43 people died and 158 were injured in the worst sporting tragedy seen in South Africa – one which still has found no one liable – which makes it also one of the biggest unpunished crimes committed in the country.
Justice Bernard Ngoepe and Advocate
Ishmael Semenya were tasked with investigating the cause but pointedly absolved of any responsibility to find capability.
Then president Thabo Mbeki, who appointed the commission in the wake of the outcry over the deaths, warned against “finger pointing” and it was therefore no surprise when the commission washed its hands of deciding who was to blame and recommending sanction.
The last paragraphs of the report says: “The commission did not find it in its terms to express an opinion on what conduct, if any, would bring liability, criminal or otherwise, for the death or
injury of those affected. We believe other instruments and processes will deal with these aspects.”
But no-one ever did and so, two decades on, the ‘killers’ of the 11-yearold Rosswin Nation, 13-year-old Siphiwe Mpungose, 21-year-old Elias Ngomane and 40 others remain at large.
Under South African Football Association guidelines for ‘high risk’ matches, the onus on the safe and successful running of the game lies with the home team. But Kaizer Chiefs never faced any charges, took any responsibility and, apart from a cursory annual press release when the anniversary of the disaster comes around each year, have absolved themselves, as if seeking to wipe away the stain from their history.
Corruption, greed fan the flames
Ngoepe cited among the reasons for the tragedy, corrupt security officials and said there was dereliction of duty by stadium personnel.
He added there had been a lack of proper planning, no accountability or clear reporting structures and there were 4,000 missing tickets for a muchanticipated match that was always going to be keenly attended.
The report found that more than 80,000 people descended on the stadium in Johannesburg to watch the derby between Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates, although for those who were there on the night, this was an inflated number.
But there were certainly many more than the stadium could hold, all eager
to see their heroes in action, and Chiefs were not patently ill-prepared to deal with it.
Security personnel, employed by the club and the Premier Soccer League, were guilty of taking cash bribes to allow through the turnstiles those who did not have tickets and there were many of them.
Yet those security guards on duty that night continued to perform similar roles at games around the country for years thereafter.
In fact, delinquency at the turnstiles remains a feature of the South African game. For the right price, without a ticket, you can still attend any game you fancy seeing.
On that fateful Wednesday night, such were the numbers without tickets who gained access that those who had prebought tickets but had not made their way to the venue in time, because of the congestion around the stadium, did not meekly turn back when it was announced that the stadium was full and there would be no more access.
They, as well as those without tickets but determined to get into the ground, drove forward, breaking down fences, notably in the north eastern corner of the stadium.
Suddenly access proved easy, creating a surge that went like a tidal wave through those already in the temporary tunnels as they headed towards the seats. Wooden structures had been built to control crowd flow but that turned into death traps.
A tragedy unfolds
It was in the darkness of the tunnels where the stampede came, people falling amid the pushing and shoving and those landing on the ground being crushed in the process.
All this was exacerbated by the firing of teargas, a callous act by Wolf Security, a private contractor hired by Ellis Park management. It did nothing more than add to the overwhelming panic. No-one from Wolf security or Ellis Park management was ever brought to book either.
Veli Mpungose told of how he thought that the stadium had collapsed. He had his two young children with him and held tightly onto the hands of his nine-year-old daughter Londiwe.
But his teenage son slipped from his grasp and when he found him, not moments later, “there were big guys lying on top of him. I felt his pulse and I couldn’t feel anything. He was dead already.”
Amid all the pushing, a heavy steel gate fell on top of people already lying on the ground. A security official described people being “thrown from above” and “total chaos, with all gates broken and the place being broken down everywhere”.
Public order police reacted too slowly, the commission found, and private security guards were hostile in attitude and manhandled fans.
Compelling evidence also showed that no-one was in control – the joint operations centre was present in name only. Autopsies later revealed the victims died from suffocation, crushed lungs, fractured skulls, and had broken limbs and various internal wounds.
By the time the crush was developing the game had already started and two early goals had been scored. The cheers of the fans already in the stadium only added to the frustration and impatience of those still trying to get through.
Certainly, there must be much blame too placed on the behaviour of spectators, with a callous disregard for their fellow supporters and certainly no disciplined patience. A culture of inconsideration still permeates to this day.
The show goes on
Nigerian-born striker Tony Ilodigwe had put Chiefs ahead after 14 minutes but
the lead lasted just 120 seconds before Benedict Vilakazi equalised.
As he went to celebrate at the corner flag, so already medical personnel had moved the inured and dying to the side of the pitch to try and apply first aid.
More and more victims were being taken to the grass behind the goals but the game continued. At that stage, confirmation of the first deaths were being made but match commissioner Andrew Dipela allowed the action to go on.
Bizarrely it took 34 minutes before the PSL’s general manager Robin Petersen stopped the game and the focus turned solely to the horrors that all at the stadium could see.
An ambulance drove onto the pitch to load up injured and a helicopter landed to ferry one or two of the critically hurt to hospital, adding to the sense of horror.
Chiefs public relations officer Putco Mafani was quick witted enough to take command of the stadium public address system and tell people what was happening.
Most stayed to watch the drama, riveted as the medical personnel and volunteers worked feverishly on the growing number of victims brought ono the pitch.
“I get a sense of a deep-seated sadness when I reminisce about that night,” Mafani recounted. “I was the MC of the proceedings and it gave me an incredible amount of responsibility.”
The teams were then in the dressing room where they would stay for a few hours. But before they left the pitch, they had formed a circle, holding hands as they said a prayer.
A fight for compensation
A relief fund established afterwards allegedly raised some R1.5-million and victims’ families received small pay outs. There was also a civil claim that saw the court order bigger payment, but of little consequence to the league and its showpiece clubs.
“They drew the case out for almost three years. With us, they argued that Rosswin wasn’t a breadwinner,” explained the mother of the 11-year-old, who was the youngest to die.
His dad had surprised him with a ticket to the game and he hurriedly put some clothes over his pyjamas before rushing out the house to get to Ellis Park.
Annette Nation is a quasi-official spokesman of the victims’ family and bitter at their neglect. “I’ve cried all these years,” she says.
There is a small plaque now at the stadium, scraggy and difficult to find, away to the side of Ellis Park in a forgotten corner. It is a metaphor for how the football authorities have looked to confine the whole tragedy to the scrap heap of history.
If there is any good to have come from the tragedy it is a much better awareness of crowd control. It would be unthinkable for such a crush to occur some 20 years on, although this is more to do with the perimeter controls in place now and the structure of stadiums, build or refurbished for the 2010 World Cup, than it is to do with the security personnel.
The PSL regularly delays the kick-off of games when the crowd are pressing to gain entry.
The Ngoepe Commission recommended other changes to avoid a repeat, some mandatory and some voluntary.
The professionalisation of safety and security staff has, however, not been acted on. The PSL army remains a ragtag collection of old men desperate for some meagre employment.
Advance ticket sales are now common place but reserved seating, as Ngoepe suggested, widely, if not totally, ignored.
So is traffic control and adequate parking outside stadia, as any visitor to a pre-COVID derby can attest to. Adequate public address systems, body searches, preventing dangerous containers and weapons from entering the stadium, and keeping access ways clear at all times is also largely ignored.
Fans should come first
Ngoepe’s insistence that protecting spectators be a primary interest of soccer bodies has not been fully taken to heart.
The report also recommended the introduction of government legislation to regulate high-risk football matches in South Africa, although an Act to best enforce all of this was brought in with the World Cup hosting in mind many years later.
The tragedy of the Ellis Park disaster is the greed and inhumanity of it all. And the complete lack of accountability. Admittedly the callous action of the stampeding supporters did the image of football fans no favours at all but those in charge on the night were sloppy, illprepared and cared not much.
The scale of the disaster still haunts 20 years on; the images of the bodies on the Ellis Park turf, covered in red blankets, is particularly harrowing.
So too some of the stories, like that of Alina Gwala of Sasolburg, whose husband had travelled to the game. She anxiously watched the drama unfold on television and kept trying to contact her husband to see if he was safe.
“I had been calling continuously when the mortuary worker picked up Mfana’s cell phone and asked me to describe what he was wearing. He then told me that he was no longer with us.”