Police insist they were present at Global Citizen Festival, despite witnesses calling foul

03 December 2018 - 13:13 By Jessica Levitt
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Incidents of crime affected concert-goers soon after the last performance at the Global Citizen Festival on Sunday, December 2 2018.
Incidents of crime affected concert-goers soon after the last performance at the Global Citizen Festival on Sunday, December 2 2018.
Image: Jessica Levitt

Police have denied that officers left the Global Citizen Festival concert after the last performance, despite witnesses saying there was no police presence when they were victims of crime.

Concert-goers took to Twitter to detail how they were mugged outside the FNB stadium on Sunday and how police officers were "simply not there".

TimesLIVE has spoken to several people who were at the concert and who described what they say was "crime chaos" after the show. Four TimesLIVE journalists were also at the show and saw a violent altercation inside the parking area. No police were present and a security guard who was there did not intervene.

Stadium management CEO Jacques Grobbelaar told TimesLIVE that all security at the event was handled by Global Citizen and the police. He said he was at the event and also saw police leaving the venue directly after the last performance.

Grobbelaar criticised the police and said those affected by crime should lay complaints against the police.

"We were, in essence, the landlords of this event. For police to say they were there and followed protocol is a blatant lie."

The police's Vish Naidoo told TimesLIVE that officers did stay. A video clip of Naidoo during an interview on SABC has gone viral. In it, he insists that police were present.


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