League remembers Ellis Park disaster
JOBURG - The Premier Soccer League (PSL) says it still remembers the football supporters who lost their lives during the Ellis Park disaster on 11 April 2001.
The Premier Soccer League said it still remembered the football supporters who lost their lives in the Ellis Park disaster on 11 April 2001.
League chairman, Dr Irvin ‘Iron Duke’ Khoza said, “As the League, we will never forget the Ellis Park tragedy – a sad day in our football history. Every year we remind ourselves and the lessons it offered.
“Our thoughts and prayers continue to be with the families of those football supporters who lost their lives,” Khoza said. The Ellis Park Stadium disaster was the worst sporting accident in South African history.
On that fateful day, spectators poured into the Ellis Park Stadium in Johannesburg for the Soweto derby between Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates. There was already a 60 000 capacity crowd in the stadium, but reports suggested that a further 30 000 fans were still trying to gain entry into the stadium.
Reports also suggested that 120 000 fans were admitted into the stadium. An Orlando Pirates equaliser sparked a further surge bye fans trying to gain entry as they scrambled to see what had happened.
A stampede ensued and 43 people were crushed to death. Apparently, untrained security guards firing tear gas at the stampeding fans exacerbated the situation, and may have been the cause of some of the deaths.
The police denied those claims. The final inquiry into the incident established that a major cause was security personnel who were bribed into admitting fans without tickets into the stadium and poor crowd control.
