Orlando Stadium was originally built for the Johannesburg Bantu Football Association and it had a seating capacity of 24 000.
It was opened by then Minister for Bantu development, MC de Wet Nell, and Ian Maltz.
The stadium was intended for football but has been used for concerts such as Jazz musicians Molombo, R Kelly, Usher and by the O’Jays.
Boxing matches were also staged including the 1975 victory of Elijah ‘Tap Tap’ Makhathini over the world welterweight and middleweight champion Emile Griffith.
On June 16 1976 thousands of pupils marched to Orlando Stadium to protest having to use Afrikaans as a medium of instruction.
In 1993 the stadium played host to the funeral of Walter Sisulu and amongst the mourners were Thabo Mbeki, Nelson Mandela, Joachim Chissano of Mozambique, Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, and Pakalitha Mosisili of Lesotho
In 1994 South Africa became democratic and on the anniversary of the Soweto Uprising Nelson Mandela gave a speech at this stadium where he committed the country to look after its children.
From 2008 to 2010 the stadium was rebuilt with a steel frame and this increased the capacity to 40,000 at a cost of R280m.
The stadium hosted a Super 14 Rugby union semi-final in 2010, as well as the 2010 Super 14 Final, a week later.
This was due to the Bulls’ usual home ground Loftus Versfeld Stadium being unavailable, due to the 2010 FIFA World Cup.
The stadium is currently used by Orlando Pirates to play their home matches.
