3 December 2018

  1. Following various media reports on criminal activity in the outer perimeter of the FNB Stadium following the Global Citizen Concert of 2 December 2018, Stadium Management South Africa Pty Ltd (SMSA) deem in necessary to issue the following statement.
  1. On 2 August 2010 the Safety at Sports and Recreational Events Act, 2 of 2010 (“the Act”) came into operation.
  1. The Act is aimed at the protection of the primary event stakeholder, members of the general public who attend the literally thousands of sporting and recreational events held countrywide in our country every year. 
  1. The Act inter alia seeks to regulate the following 8 basic key areas:
    • Responsibilities for event safety & security delivery;
    • Integrated & timeous event safety and security planning between all relevant stakeholders for medium and high-risk events – facilitated and headed-up by SAPS;
    • Minimum safety and security measures at medium and high-risk events;
  1. The Act defines between, and places certain responsibilities on:
    • Event Organizer means:
      “any person who plans, is in charge of, manages, supervises, or holds an event or sponsorship rights to an event or in any manner controls or has a material interest in the hosting of an event as contemplated in this Act”;
    • Venue Owner means:
      “a person who owns, manages or is entitled to exercise the rights of an owner or occupier of a venue used for events”;
    • Event Safety & Security Planning Committee means:
      “the committee contemplated in Section 15 (of the Act) which is a committee established by an authorized SAPS member consisting of a minimum of 12 safety & security stakeholders to co-ordinate Safety and Security planning and functions at an Event;”
    • Authorized Member means:
      “a police official (Captain & above) designated) as Chairperson of an event safety and security Committee (ESSPC) and has overall authority to direct measures relating to safety and security at an event.  
  1. The Event Organizer for the Global Citizen Concert of 2 December 2018 was Big Concerts.
  1. Stadium Management acted as Venue Owner having regard to the definition recorded in the Act.
  1. The primary statutory bodies responsible for the administration and enforcement of the Act are the SAPS and the City of Johannesburg as Local Authority.
  1. In essence the responsibilities for safety and security at an event, flowing from provisions of the Act, are governed by the Event Safety and Security Planning Committee (ESSPC), comprising of various role-players and constituted in accordance with the provisions of the Act.
  1. The relevant obligations relating to an ESSPC include that:
    • SAPS are responsible to establish the Event Safety and Security Planning Committee (ESSPC) for events which have been categorized as medium or high risk;
    • SAPS must appoint an authorized SAPS official to chair that ESSPC;
    • ESSPC must advise National Commissioner (or person appointed by him), in writing, of any circumstances in the lead-up to or during an event which impact on the original risk categorization for that event;
  1. The authorized SAPS official who chairs the ESSPC, must:
    • appoint the ESSPC members, of which the stadium manager is one, in writing;
    • manage and coordinate the powers and duties of the ESSPC;
    • assign specific safety and security tasks to appointed safety and security stakeholders; and
    • has overall authority to direct measures relating to safety and security at an event.
    • ESSPC must, under the direction of the SAPS chairperson, prepare a written, event specific safety and security plan for the coordination of all safety and security stakeholders deployed at an event.
    • Assignment of specific tasks to safety & security role-players relating to:
      • event safety measures;
      • event medical (health) measures;
      • event security measures;
      • deployment of SAPS members;
      • deployment of private security service providers;
      • emergency & essential service measures
      • the VOC.
    • prepare an event specific Safety and Security Plan for the co-ordination of traffic and by-law enforcement officials;
    • assign specific tasks to traffic and by-law enforcement officials;
    • determine with regard to a specific event measures relating to vehicle access control inclusive. parking measures
    • demarcate a site or an area at an event where a person may only  enter if in possession of a specific pass (accreditation, event ticket, parking ticket;
  1. In terms of the written event specific Safety and Security Plan approved by the National Commissioner of Police, the South African Police Service is responsible for law enforcement and related responsibilities, whilst the JMPD were responsible for traffic management enforcement, inclusive of road closure management and control.
  1. In terms of the written event specific Safety and Security Plan approved by the National Commissioner of Police, Stadium Management South Africa as Venue Owner defined in the Act, was responsible to co-ordinate the following functions at the Global Citizen Concert:
    • Parking Management (in this instance it is relevant to note that the Traffic Management was the responsibility of the JMPD):
    • Hospitality Management;
    • Cleaning Services Management;
    • Formal and Informal Vendor Management;
    • Existing Commercial Sponsors Activation Management.
  1. In order to execute its allocated functions service providers and employees of SMSA were accredited to execute duties on event day, inter-alia 170 cleaners employed in terms of a CSI project managed by SMSA in conjunction with the City of Johannesburg.
  1. With exception of the cleaning duties all other function directed by the ESSPC to the Venue Owner were executed to the satisfaction of the Management of SMSA and in accordance with the approved ESSPC Safety and Security Plan. Cleaning services at the venue were not up to the normal SMSA standard as only 74 cleaners were allowed access to the venue by the SAPS, and only at 13h00, after been ready to perform their duties from 06h00 on event day. The limited numbered had to be deployed to critical areas leaving certain areas unattended from cleaning for the duration of the event.
  1. I therefor deem it necessary to formally record that any notion that SMSA was responsible for the safety and security and/or traffic management at the event is simply not true. The ESSPC Safety and Security Plan approved by the National Commissioner of Police is testimony to that.
  1. In the same breath SMSA as Venue Owner accepts its joint and severable liability with the Event Organizer in terms of the SAREA legislation, in as far as compliance to the approved ESSPC Safety and Security Plan is concerned, and will therefor fully co-operate with any enquiry into the events that occurred on 2 December 2018 at the Global Citizen Concert.

 

Dr. Jacques Grobbelaar
DBA (Honoris Causa) LGS (London), Commonwealth University
Chief Executive Officer
Stadium Management SA (Pty) Limited