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ELEVEN people were killed while 54 others were seriously injured last Thursday night in a stampede which occurred at Mbizo Stadium in Kwekwe where Prophetic Healing and Deliverance leader Walter Magaya had just finished a crusade. The church and police are giving conflicting details on what triggered this tragic chain of events. The congregants blamed the police whom they accused of blocking all but just one exit point for the people to use to leave the stadium.

The congregation in the stadium was estimated at 30 000. That is a huge number to be forced to use only one exit.

It is not known who made the decision to open just one exit point and why.

The congregants claimed police officers were deployed to block the other exits.

Since it was already late at night at 10pm, it is natural that people became impatient to leave for their homes. That would explain why they broke part of the precast wall to get out.

In response, the police allegedly fired teargas into the crowd. This created panic and a stampede which led to some people being trampled on. Four allegedly died on the spot while the others died at Kwekwe District Hospital. All in all 54 people were injured, some with broken or dislocated limbs.

A baby and a pregnant woman were among the dead.

The police for their part denied firing teargas into the congregants. They said they were merely doing their duty to contain a rowdy crowd after Magaya had left. Truth will only be known after thorough investigations.

Magaya must be commended for taking vicarious blame for something which occurred after he had already left the venue of the crusade. He returned to the scene of the tragedy as soon as he got the news to assess the situation. He has also pledged to help pay medical bills for the injured. There is nothing which Prophet Magaya can do for the deceased except to commiserate with the relatives.

What we find worrisome though is that our police force has a very poor record of crowd handling to say the least.

This latest incident reminds us of what happened at the National Sports Stadium a few years ago when some overzealous police officers responded to crowd trouble in the stadium by firing teargas.

The result was 13 innocent lives lost.

This time around it is 11 lives gone.

The police were also accused of firing teargas at the dancehall Sting festival at City Sports Centre where several revellers were seriously injured.

We don’t want to pass gratuitous blame here. But like we have already asked above, it is puzzling why one exit point was left open when the crusade was already over? What was the point of trying to slow down the exit of the congregants when the crusade was over and it was already late in the night?

Preliminary reports indicate that police fired teargas into the crowd after part of the precast wall had been brought down by the impatient congregants. It is not clear why this reaction was found appropriate although the police themselves deny firing teargas.

We know that a fundamental role of policing is to protect life and property. In this case part of a precast wall had been brought down.

Obviously the police had to choose between the precast wall (property) and human life (the congregants) who were feeling trapped inside the stadium. It would appear that some overzealous police officer thought it was more important to protect the wall than let the people go. It doesn’t portray the police in good light at all. Another tragedy which could have been avoided if those responsible had acted with due care.

We hope the powers that be at PGHQ will take the necessary steps to ensure that our police officers are never found in a position where it is accused of not discharging their duties properly.