Durban - Brett Williams was beaten to death outside Kings Park stadium on Saturday while at least 20 Fidelity Security guards allegedly watched and let his attackers leave afterwards. This is according to a witness who was at the scene on the night.
The Fidelity Security group confirmed on Thursday night that it had launched an investigation and also said that one of its guards had suffered leg injuries while trying to apprehend a suspect.
But according to the witness, who did not wish to be named, “stadium officials” in white shirts were also present and even spoke to the assailant after the incident, before letting him go.
“(The official) assured us that they knew who one of the guys was and how to get hold of him. But the point is they stood and watched him walk away.”
Williams, an English maritime security operator, was outside the Shark Supporters Club after the Super Rugby game between the home team and the Melbourne Rebels when he was accosted by a group of men who looked like “body builders”. The main aggressor was a man with a shaved head, said the witness.
A scuffle broke out and Williams was strangled, punched and kicked repeatedly. He died from his injuries.
“At one stage, the guy with a shaved head lunged for the group of security guards who fell over each other and a low wooden railing to scatter in all directions,” the witness said.
“When one of the men in our group asked one of the officials why he had let the guy go, he retorted ‘you arrest him big boy, because I am not’.
“I would strongly question Brian Van Zyl’s (the Sharks chief executive) statement saying that he was satisfied that security had done everything possible to assist in stopping the fight.”
Van Zyl, in response to earlier media inquiries, stated that, after an internal investigation had been conducted, the franchise was satisfied that its contracted service providers had done all they could to stop the brawl. Fidelity Security being one of them.
When contacted yesterday, Sharks spokeswoman Novashni Chetty said they were unable to provide any information about the claims that security guards did not intervene, as the case was still being investigated by police.
Once the police had given them permission to release the information, they would do so.
Francois Bartmann, the Fidelity Security Group spokesman, said an internal investigation was under way to determine what had happened on Saturday evening.
He said this investigation was separate from the police investigation.
Police spokesman Thulani Zwane said
no arrests had been made.
The Mercury