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Raymond Jaravaza
SO good and oversubscribed was the Bulawayo Shutdown music show last Saturday that an unruly gang of fans tried to force their way into the venue without paying and destroyed a section of the perimeter wall at Queens Sports Club.
The cricket arena hosted the annual Bulawayo Shutdown featuring South Africa and local acts on the last day of the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair (ZITF). Unable to resist the lure of watching South Africa superstars like Kwesta, Murumba Pitch, Emtee and local crowd pullers Winky D, Enzo Ishall, Mzoe 7 and Killer T, among other acts, a group of fans decided to try to quench their appetite for good live music for free.
Of course, with no money in their pockets, the marauding group thought it was wise to vandalise a section of the venue to gain free entry. The section of the perimeter wall that the vandals targeted to breach is along Robert Mugabe Way and at night is covered by an envelope of darkness caused by an enormous canopy of branches of decades-old trees around the area.
The cover of darkness must have been the motivating factor for the gang to push down the perimeter wall, a security detail manning the venue on the night of the show told B-Metro.
“It was a co-ordinated security breach because these guys knew what they were doing, they organised themselves and looked for what they thought was an easy area to destroy the perimeter wall for free entry into the venue.
“What they didn’t know was that we had a team doing rounds around the Queens Sports Club perimeter wall and our security team reacted quickly and chased the group out of the venue before they could mix and mingle with the rest of the fans that had paid to watch the show,” said a team leader of a security team hired by the organisers of the show.
On Tuesday morning, more than 48 hours after the Bulawayo Shutdown, B-Metro observed a team from the organisers of the music show, offloading bricks and cement to repair the section of the venue that was vandalised by the marauding gang.
By late afternoon on the same day, the construction team had repaired the damaged wall. Show promoter, Byron Rice said as the organisers of the show, it was their responsibility to fix the damaged wall.
Online Reporter