According to a spectator, UP student Nhlanhla Mthimunye, “[During] the first half everything was fine, everybody was singing. It came to the second half, everything went well and everyone was having fun. Until it came to about the last ten minutes…when we [Tuks] scored the second goal.”
Mthimunye said that the UP-Tuks supporters were sitting on the top pavilion of the main stand on the left hand side of the stadium, and the TUT supporters filled the entire floor beneath the top stand.
“I guess it was the TUT fans who started throwing bottles between the two stands and I think the Tuks people [threw] them back. I think that went on for about a minute or less. They then threw bottles onto the pitch. The referee had to stop things [end the game].”
Mthimunye said, “after that, suddenly… the TUT guys sitting next to the goal post started kicking down the first fence. Then they went to the second barricade and started kicking that one down. Then they started kicking the advertisement screens. Things got heated when they started throwing stones onto the field and at Tuks students.”
Another spectator and Perdeby photographer, Stefan Stander, recalls the incident. “A few people carried another person down [who] looked unconscious. The ambulance arrived and stones were thrown at it. The left side window of the ambulance was broken. The police then used an advertising board to carry the unconscious person to safety.”
A statement released by the office of the vice-chancellor of TUT states that the university condemns the violence that occurred at the game and called the violent behaviour and damage to property “totally unacceptable”.
It concludes in saying, “The University will thoroughly investigate the role of our students in this regrettable turn of events and where warranted, the instigators and perpetrators of the violence will face the full consequences of the law and of our University disciplinary process.”
UP-Tuks was crowned the winner of 2017 men’s VarsityFootball season, making the win their third title in five years.
Photos: Stefan Stander
