Chiefs and Pirates Remember Orkney

On this day 13 January in 1991, Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates played their pre-season game at the Oppenheimer Stadium at Orkney.

Orkney is a gold mining town situated in the Klerksdorp district of the North West province, South Africa. It lies on the banks of the Vaal River approximately 180 km from Johannesburg near the N12.

Oppenheimer stadium had the capacity of 26 000 fans and on the day of the game, approximately 30 000 fans were allowed into to the stadium. Due to an overfilled stadium, Chiefs and Pirates fans were not separated as it was the tradition in those years, this resulted in both teams fans sharing some stands.

Amakhosi scored a debatable goal that the referee upheld, however Pirates fans were not happy, they started throwing cans, bottle, etc into the stadium. This also led to the Bucs fans attacking Amakhosi fans. It is reported that some of the fans has some dangerous weapons like pangas, and during this commotion, many fans tried to run out of the stadium, this led to a stampede as many people were crashed during this commotion.

Total number of fatalities was 42.