Water outage leaves Kaizer Chiefs and Polokwane City without showers after draw

Kaizer Chiefs, Polokwane City and match officials left the Old Peter Mokaba Stadium without showering after a water outage disrupted Saturday’s Betway Premiership fixture.

The interruption continued throughout the 1-1 draw, with temperatures reaching nearly 30 degrees Celsius in Polokwane over the weekend. One insider described the situation as a potential humanitarian crisis.

The incident has renewed concerns about the maintenance of South Africa’s 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.

Both clubs and the officials reportedly departed without being able to wash after the game, while supporters approached club representatives on the field seeking help.

Kaizer Chiefs communications manager Vina Maphosa said the outage affected the team’s preparations and left fans 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 arrived at half-time, but Maphosa said the delay had raised concerns about hygiene across the stadium as fans called on the club to intervene.

“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,” he said.

PSL chief operating officer Ronnie Schloss said the league had not been informed of the problem and would investigate.

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

“It was the supply lines from the municipality, not the stadium, unable to provide required services,” Sebaka said.

Selala could not be reached for comment.