Stadium invaders set to make public apology
The Department of Justice together with the Premier Soccer League will hold a victim offenders mediation dialogue at the Moses Mabhida Stadium today.
A security official gets beaten by a mob when violence erupted at the Moses Mabhida Stadium in Durban on Saturday, April 21, 2018. Picture: Motshwari Mofokeng/ANA
The dialogue will be attended by the eight supporters who were arrested in May last year during the Nedbank Cup semi-final fixture between Kaizer Chiefs and Free State Stars at Moses Mabhida Stadium.
The eight were convicted of various crimes following acts of hooliganism on the night resulting in extensive damage to stadium property and to that of broadcasters, SuperSport.
PSL spokesperson Lux September says the offenders asked the League to facilitate a public apology session between them and the victims.
“We are facing so many challenges at the moment as a country, one of the things we need to turn things around is seeing offenders from the other side engaging in public dialogue talking about consequences of people burning things down. Remember what happened at Moses Mabhida that day, it was an ugly scene and was bad for football,” September told Metro FM.
“This dialogue will be facilitated by the department of correctional service working closely with the Premier Soccer League and SuperSport because a lot of damage was done to the property that belonged to the broadcaster and the City of eThekwini will be involved as well.
“It is an important dialogue because it sends a message to the people that we must have safe stadiums. Our league is rated among the top ten leagues in the world.
“Everyone participating in this session on their own free and no one was forced. As the PSL we were invited to be a part of it. We were asked if we would be comfortable to be a part of it.”
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