Partners Plan to Control Bad Behaviour at Newlands

The Western Cape Government and Western Province Rugby are expected to work together to decisively deal with fan misbehaviour at the DHL Newlands Rugby Stadium in Cape Town. This comes after some members of the crowd engaged in violent acts during a Vodacom Super Rugby match between the DHL Stormers and the New Zealand Crusaders on Saturday, 30 March 2013.

There have been a number of incidents at Stormers/ Crusaders matches at Newlands. Western Province Rugby Union (WPRFU) President Mr Thelo Wakefield said, “People are of course free to support whichever team they choose, but we do expect mutual respect and decent behaviour. Those impacting negatively on others’ enjoyment of the game will be dealt with. We will absolutely not tolerate blatant taunting, abusive language, hooliganism and general bad behaviour as experienced here on that weekend.”

Wakefield said that WP Rugby had met with key event role-players about bad behaviour in certain quarters of the crowd during Saturday’s match and would be implementing a number of operational recommendations that had been made. In addition, WP Rugby will be engaging with role-players like the public broadcaster and SANZAR [South Africa, New Zealand and Australia Rugby] about future Stormers/ Crusaders matches at Newlands.

Minister of Cultural Affairs and Sport, Dr Ivan Meyer told the Cape Argus last week he was unhappy with the behaviour of some fans during the match. He is expected to focus on crowd control at Newlands rugby stadium when he meets the province’s sporting federations later this month.

Dr Meyer has proposed strict new measures to deal with disruptive sport fans, including stronger security measures, year-long bans on identified offenders, and closed circuit television cameras. The cameras would enable security staff to identify potential conflict situations before things get out of hand. 

The partners will not condone bad behaviour from anyone and have expressed their commitment to ensuring that rugby fans can continue to enjoy watching matches at Newlands. The Stormers play the Sharks in a coastal derby at Newlands stadium on Saturday, 13 April 2013.