I am a mother and, at the same time, a concerned citizen who would like to complain about what is happening at the Action Sports Club, in Meyersdal.
On Saturday, July 9, I witnessed a massive fight that took place on the premises of the club and, in the act of trying to stop the fight, I, myself, got injured.
I dropped off my son where he was set to socialise with around 30 or so of his friends, just before 20:00.
There are no bouncers asking for ID when people enter the premises and my son and his friends were drinking alcohol and they were also not asked for ID.
At around 21:30, I saw some drunk girls from my son’s group walking past where I was, and decided to investigate.
Arriving back at the club, I saw there was some commotion starting, that soon became a massive fight involving countless people, mostly children.
I saw one man in a pool of his own blood and there must have been many others hurt.
I stopped someone from hitting the man with a bottle, by grabbing it. When he pushed me hard and I hit my head against the wheel of a car.
It is a disgrace that these kids acted this way, but they cannot be held responsible, they are not grown-ups; the management of the Action Sports Club should be held responsible for this.
Concerned mother and resident.
The RECORD spoke to the owner of the establishment, Martin White, who says he can’t be responsible for everyone who comes there.
“I am currently experiencing a huge problem with members of the public who are arriving here at my premises and who are not members of the club,” he adds.
”We do open our doors to everyone, as the nature of our business allows for spectators, friends and family members to come and socialise, but for the past three to six months we have become the local Friday night ‘jol’.
”The reason for this is probably that other venues have recently been closed down, but this is an Action Sports Arena, not the local Rave Club.”As one parent has mentioned in this article, they dropped their kid here to socialise with 30 of his friends.
”How can she expect me to be the chaperone and look after her kids? That should be her duty, not mine.
”I have had to employ extra security to combat the number of youngsters on my premises arriving without parental supervision and bringing alcohol here (especially during school holidays).
”I confiscate huge amounts of alcohol from underage kids smuggling their alcohol onto my premises and often arriving here drunk.
”We get a lot of back chat and aggressiveness for just doing our jobs.
”Please parents, take your kids to the mall or elsewhere, not here; this is a business and we will not put our business at risk by selling to underage kids.
”As for the fight: we have no control over that, except to try our best to remove these people from our premises so that the rest of our customers can continue having a good evening.
”We hold the right to remove anyone, as we have the ‘Right of Admission Reserved’ policy.
”I have installed more cameras on the premises and now have a total of 32 cameras strategically positioned to film all the occurrences.
”Security is a huge concern.
”We have operated in Alberton for the past 14 years and appreciate all the support that the Alberton community and surrounding areas have given us over the years.
”We hope that this support does not change, but please respect the rules, those of the club, but also of the country.”
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