Culpability for stadium disasters in the era of the Safety at
Sports & Recreational Events Act, 2 of 2010
On 11 April 2001, spectators poured into the iconic Ellis Park
Stadium in Johannesburg for the world famous Soweto derby football
match between Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates. Apparently some 80
000 fans arrived but the venue had a capacity of 60 000. Organisers
could not keep up with the flood of people and issued an
announcement that tickets had been sold out as the stadium was
full. The announcement went unheeded and a crowd of frustrated fans
surged to view the action on the pitch. In a resultant stampede, 43
people were tragically crushed to death.
The Ellis Park Stadium disaster, as it came to be known, was the
worst sporting accident in South African history. At the time,
President Mbeki appointed a judicial commission of inquiry that
recommended the introduction of urgent need specialist legislation
to regulate safety at high risk, mass events.
