Concert chaos points to poor policing at our big events

The tragic events of April 11 2001 when 43 football spectators died and 150 were injured at Johannesburg’s Ellis Park during a match between two South African sporting giants — Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates — should have been a hard lesson for event organisers that their crowd management plans and other protocols are only as good as the people employed to implement them. Clearly we have yet to learn this lesson. If we had, what happened at the FNB Stadium last Sunday would not have happened. On Monday the country woke to reports of muggings, assaults, stabbings and chaos outside the stadium after the Global Citizen Festival, which had attracted thousands of music lovers from around the world. These incident have sullied what was otherwise a great event and a perfect platform for SA to once again display to the rest of the world that this country is capable of hosting world-class events.

What we find even more shocking are admissions that it could have been avoided. As we report today, blame has been placed squarely at the door of the police, specifically the Johannesburg metro police department, South African Police Service and to a certain extent the presidential protection services.

These law enforcement agencies have been accused of making changes to the traffic and crowd management plans at the last minute, seemingly without notice. It is said that people who were not supposed to give orders were heard and seen barking instructions, leaving the organisers confused and the stadium management team feeling excluded from decision-making involving their own precinct.

These errors — described as a “dereliction of duty” by law enforcement — led to concertgoers being sitting ducks, easy targets for despicable criminals.

More worryingly than the on-day events is that chaos at the country’s big stadiums is not new. Even the sports ministry is considering a commission of inquiry into safety and security at such events. Calls for the commission have grown louder since last weekend’s shambolic concert aftermath.

The Safety at Sports & Recreational Events Act of

2009, which came into law after the Ellis Park disaster, was meant to prevent incidents like these from happening again. Lawmakers had to act because the

Ellis Park incident came 10 years after a similar incident in Orkney — coincidentally at a match between Pirates and Chiefs — where 42 spectators died.

Ten years after the law was enacted it has still not worked as SA lurches from one stadium disaster to another.

Video footage of Orlando Pirates fans going on the rampage at Loftus Versfeld in Pretoria after their team’s 6-0 defeat by Mamelodi Sundowns in February 2017 is still fresh in many minds. On that day, fans, including children, were injured, and broadcast and photographic equipment destroyed.

Just six months later, on July 29, two fans attending the Soweto derby at FNB Stadium were killed when supporters — allegedly with fake tickets — caused a stampede. The pair were crushed to death.

And then, on April 21 this year, Kaizer Chiefs fans stormed Durban’s Moses Mabhida Stadium pitch after their team had lost to Bloemfontein Celtic. A security guard was severely beaten and equipment damaged. These incidents alone — and there are many, many more — should have been enough for security at stadiums for big events to be tightened up.

The warnings, and history, have been ignored. It was refreshing that police minister Bheki Cele said the police took “full responsibility” for what happened — even if the act requires him to — but this is not enough. The police need to get their act together, or muggings, robberies and even murder will keep people away from big events.

This is not enough. Police need to get their act together