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SPEECH DELIVERED BY MR S'BU NDEBELE, KZN MINISTER OF TRANSPORT, ON THE OCCASION OF THE KING'S PARK MEMORIAL FOR THE VICTIMS OF THE ELLIS PARK SOCCER TRAGEDY19 April 2001, Kings Park, Durban
The deaths of 43 people at Ellis Park Stadium in what has been described as an unprecedented tragedy in the history of soccer in our country is an event of great sadness for out country. It graphically illustrates the harsh reality that life is so often subject to the vagaries of human failings defects brought upon by past denial of opportunities to ensure that we are able to adequately protect ourselves. Our lack of capacity to be vigilant against such defects in the social order often leads to a pain and suffering that exacerbates the oppression born of the social, political and economic neglects of the past. The tragedy of Ellis Park, like the many other tragedies that befall us from time to time, is perhaps a manifestation of that past. Death, it is said, is an inevitability of fate. But the tragic waste of human lives under conditions of human neglect cannot be blamed on fate. Every so often society must itself take responsibility for the pain, suffering, poverty, hunger, death, and all the other miseries that are inflicted upon our people as they struggle to go about their daily lives. Society's culpability lies in the fact that quite often the tragedies we experience could have been entirely avoided. And so as we mourn the death under tragic circumstances of the 43 soccer fans at Ellis Park Stadium last Wednesday, we are impelled into a realisation that the tragedy of what happened lies precisely in the fact that it could have been avoided. As Minister of Transport in KwaZulu-Natal who has had to witness on a regular basis the tragedy that unfolds on our roads through motor vehicle collisions and the deaths of pedestrians, I can fully understand the anguish that today clouds the lives of the families of those who died in the Ellis Park tragedy occurred, 29 people lost their lives in the bus disaster in Kokstad and a few days later another 14 perished in the road collision in Zinkwazi, a total of 43 lives lost on the roads is a matter of a few days. Sadly, this past week the number 43 hence marks for me the ominous sign of a double jeopardy. However, I am conscious of the fact that because the 43 deaths at Ellis Park occurred in one fell swoop it is more vividly etched in our minds and has evoked a sadness of international proportions. I am sure, However, that you would agree that while the 43 deaths on our KwaZulu-Natal roads occurred in two major incremental doses, they also are a matter of deep sorrow to our country, especially to people of KwaZulu-Natal. We all realise the soccer in South Africa is the chief recreational pastime of the masses of our people. It is a sport that invites great enthusiasm, and evokes a passion of the mind and the soul that sustains a people whose past lives has otherwise been a history of neglect. We need to protect their constitutional right to enjoy their sport without fear of death or injury. Indeed, we have a responsibility to ensure that our hard-won democracy protects the rights of our citizens, to all the freedoms that our constitution guarantees and which were recorded for posterity in the ANC's Freedom Charter - the right to adequate recreation and leisure, and the right to safe travel on our roads being among these. I congratulate you on holding this memorial and thus ensuring that Durban and KwaZulu-Natal are at one with our nation today as we grieve the sad loss of the lives at Ellis Park. In doing so, I am sure that you would also remember in your hearts those who have perished under other tragic circumstances. I thank you.
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