With effect from 1 August 2010, a new piece of legislation was introduced, called the Safety at Sports and Recreational Events Act, 2 of 2010 ("the Act").  The stated purpose of the Act is to ensure the safety and well-being of persons attending sports, recreational, religious, cultural, exhibitional, organisational or similar events.

While this may sound as though it is limited to large sporting events like rugby matches, the actual application of the Act is potentially much wider.  The Act provides that no person may organise an "event" unless it complies with certain requirements of the Act, including submitting a schedule of the events planned to the national police commissioner. 

An "event" is defined as any sporting, entertainment, recreational, religious, cultural, exhibitional, organisational or similar activities hosted at any of the following:

• a stadium: being any enclosed or semi-enclosed structure a field or a permanent or temporary podium, etc and which has a safe seated or standing spectator capacity of at least 2 000 persons as certified by a local authority;
• a venue: being any area or place where an event is hosted that has a seating or standing spectator capacity of at least 2 000 persons, as certified by a local authority, within which other permanent or temporary structures may be erected;    
• along a route: being the way or course taken in getting from a starting point to a destination during an event which takes the form of a race or procession; or
• within their respective precincts: being an enclosed or clearly defined surrounding area or environs or a specifically designated or sign-posted area immediately adjacent to or in close proximity to a stadium, venue or route.

Therefore, if one hosts even a event for say 100 people but at a venue with a capacity for at least 2000 people, it will fall within the ambit of the Act.  In addition, if your property is along the route of any race or procession, you may also be subject to the provisions of the Act.

Once your event is classified as falling within the ambit of this legislation, fairly draconian powers may be exercised by the police commissioner, including prohibiting the sale of tickets, prohibiting people attending the event and, in addition, fairly onerous responsibilities are placed upon the event organiser, controlling body and the stadium or venue owner, including putting in place prescribed measures to ensure the safety of persons attending the event.

Erika Petersen-Holmes, Partner

Contact: 031 575 7410 and petersen@wylie.co.za