The Royal Aria Incident Report Will Soon Gather Dust
Mqondisi Dube | Tuesday March 22, 2022 06:00
The smell of blood permeated the air as scores lay injured following a stampede during a league match between Township Rollers and Extension Gunners. Impatient fans had pushed down the gates as hundreds were still stranded way after the 7pm kick-off. One critically injured fan bled from the ears and suffered a broken rib cage. It was not a pretty sight.
Despite the tragedy, it appears there was very little the administrators took away from that incident. Scheduling crowd pullers, Rollers and Gunners at night and in a small venue like the Molepolole Sports Complex was an open invitation to tragedy. Admittedly, there were no suitable venues at that time as the National Stadium was under eternal renovation. In South Africa, after the 2001 Ellis Park disaster, true to crisis management, the football leadership stopped scheduling the Soweto derby at night or during midweek.
The clash was moved to the much more spacious FNB Stadium and all has been near seamless since. This is undoubted evidence of a leadership learning from its mistake. In Botswana, fast forward to 2022, memories of 2011 have come flooding after fans pushed their way through the Royal Aria Stadium gates during a top of the table clash between Gaborone United and Rollers.
Someone decided the 8,000 capacity facility was suitable to host arguably the biggest fixture of the season. In their minds such a big contest deserved to be played at the comparatively smaller venue. They left the National Stadium lying idle only to drive to Tlokweng to invite disaster. If the Molepolole Sports Complex incident report contained remedial measures, then the Royal Aria near tragedy could have been avoided.
The size of the venue should have immediately raised the red flag to the organisers and discouraged them from proceeding with their dastardly deed. An investigation is not only carried out just to find fault, but also to prevent similar incidents from recurring in future. If this is not achieved, then the investigation becomes a futile academic exercise. We have seen a lot of that with a lot of Inquiries which end up gathering dust. A task force was set-up to probe the Royal Aria incident and Township Rollers security manager has been suspended over the incident.
Well and good, but it should not end there. Focus should not only be on punitive action, but on recommendations as well. If a similar incident happens in future, someone will be suspended and then it just become cyclical. Instead focus should be on prevention.
The Ellis Park disaster was an eye opener for South African authorities and they took corrective measures, and judging by the absence of new tragedies, it has been a lesson well learnt.
The Molepolole Sports Complex incident was supposed to be an eye opener, but alas, it’s still business as usual. If authorities institute inquiries just for the sake of finger pointing, then it will be useless effort. They say if you go searching for a baboon in the mountains, you will certainly find it. Football authorities should stop inviting these stampedes through their languid thinking.