Sports minister Kirsty Coventry has challenged Zifa to better organise their events in future following the death of a female fan in a stampede at the National Sports Stadium on Sunday as people jostled to get into the facility before kick-off.
It is understood the woman who was in the company of her husband suffered injuries after she was trampled upon by fans that had forced the main gate down to gain free entry.
According to the police, a couple of other fans were injured in separate incidents at the stadium.
Zifa employed advance ticket sales system, while those tickets that were sold on Sunday were only sold away from the stadium.
However, there were delays at the gates due to the slow process in scanning the tickets at entry points which caused fans to get agitated as kick-off approached.
Coventry used her Twitter handle to demand better safety procedures from event organisers.
“This kind of thing should never have happened. All events have to have proper safety procedures put in place. We expect everybody to behave properly, but know this doesn’t always happen. The organisers of these events have to be better prepared,” she wrote on her page.
Zifa has released a statement offering condolence to the deceased’s family.
“Our heartfelt condolences go to the family and friends of a Warriors supporter who passed on after being trampled on at the Warriors match yesterday. May her soul rest in eternal peace. We wish those who were injured a speedy recovery.”
The local football mother body also pledged to speed up entry processes in future.
“We shall continue to work towards making our admission processes at entry points more swift so that recurrence of such unfortunate events can be avoided.”
Source: Bulawayonews
