Water outage leaves Kaizer Chiefs and Polokwane City unable to shower after Betway Premiership draw

Kaizer Chiefs, Polokwane City and match officials left the Old Peter Mokaba Stadium without showering after a water outage during Saturday’s 1-1 Betway Premiership draw in Polokwane.

The unprecedented interruption lasted throughout the match and caused further disruption for supporters and staff at the venue. Temperatures in the Limpopo capital approached 30 degrees Celsius over the weekend, prompting one insider to describe the situation as a potential humanitarian crisis.

The incident has renewed concerns over the maintenance of South Africa’s local stadiums, 16 years after the country hosted the Fifa World Cup. Several teams have already had fixtures moved to alternative venues at short notice this PSL season because of challenges affecting match facilities.

Sowetan reported that both teams and the match officials departed the stadium without being able to bathe. Some supporters also approached club officials on the field to ask for help with the problem.

Kaizer Chiefs communications manager Vina Maphosa acknowledged that the outage disrupted the team’s preparations and left supporters frustrated.

“Before the game, we realised that there was no running water at the stadium, so we did try to find out [why there was no water], and we were told that there was an interruption, but water would be restored in no time,” Maphosa told Sowetan on Monday.

“During the period of pre-match we got inconvenienced because there was discomfort in the dressing room since there was no running water, which is obviously a basic necessity in the dressing room. So, our preparations before the game weren’t 100% because of the water outage.”

Water tankers were brought to the stadium at half-time, but Maphosa said the club remained concerned about hygiene and the calls it was receiving from supporters.

“Water drums were eventually delivered in the dressing room at halftime. Most of the supporters were calling us to respond to the challenge, and we started to get worried about the aspect of hygiene around the stadium. The team had to leave without bathing properly,” she said.

The Premier Soccer League’s chief operating officer, Ronnie Schloss, said the organisation had not been informed about the failure and would investigate.

“It’s the first time I hear that there was no water at the Old Peter Mokaba on Saturday,” Schloss said.

“We will investigate because when we deemed the stadium fit to host games, everything was good there.”

Mantlako Sebaka, sports manager at Polokwane municipality, which manages the stadium, directed questions to the municipality’s communications manager, Thipa Selala.

Sebaka said the problem involved the municipality’s supply lines rather than the stadium itself, which had been unable to provide the required services. Selala could not be reached for comment.