Picture: Global Citizen Festival on Twitter
Music revellers who attended the Global Citizen Festival showpiece at the FNB Stadium on Sunday have detailed horrific experiences after the show ended, from extreme traffic congestion to lack of public transport, and robberies occurring right outside the stadium.
People took to Twitter, reporting robberies, muggings, assaults and sexual harassment. Some have even described a “mass mugging” and reported that there were “screams everywhere”.
The much-anticipated show to honour Nelson Mandela, who died in 2013 and would have turned 100 this year, lived up to expectations with the headline act of American superstars Beyonce and Jay-Z leaving fans crying for more. But afterwards, many fell prey to crime while trapped in the stadium due to heavily backed-up traffic.
On social media, people detailed how the precinct became a “war zone” as running battles ensued between criminals and showgoers, with many being mugged for their belongings while young women waiting for their rides home at a nearby garage were harassed with allegedly no security or police in sight.
There were reports of a group of about 30 men using knives and guns to attack people and grab their belongings, with some being allegedly stabbed and left with broken noses.
The Gautrain commuter services, which ferried people from Park Station in the Johannesburg central business to the stadium, said its buses were often stuck in traffic, with the last bus departing the stadium at around 3.30 am after the show ended at 11.30 pm.
The official Twitter account for Global Citizen expressed sadness at “challenges” faced by people leaving the venue and said they had been “working to support people getting home safely”.
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