We risked our lives - Orbit College coach on shooting at Harry Gwala stadium

Makhoye was referring to the ugly scenes at the stadium yesterday where they had to run for their lives and duck bullets at Harry Gwala in Pietermaritzburg after their 1-0 win over KwaZulu-Natal side Msinga United in the ABC Motsepe national playoffs.

Disgruntled home supporters hurled missiles onto the pitch before gunfire broke out, placing fans, teams, officials, and SABC Sport's production crew in danger.

Makhoye says there should be serious lessons for SAFA from this.

"We don't expect this especially from football. They are messing up the beautiful football that we displayed here. We can't even celebrate our achievement. But it is what it is, as long as we got what we wanted," he said.

"We were very worried because we were risking our lives here. I hope SAFA can organise these tournaments better, especially in terms of security. This is worse. We can't expect this. Parents have given us their kids, so they're worried. Imagine if tomorrow they say 'Your child is dead, he's been shot at the national playoffs' It's very worrying. I hope South African Football Association can learn from what happened today." Orbit College is where Orlando Pirates, Bafana Bafana sensation, and Dstv premiership Players’ Player of the season Monnapule Saleng was produced.

Orbit College, a TVET college based in North West, was appearing in its second consecutive second division playoffs. With the majority of players being students, Makhoye says he was very worried that one of them could have been shot and was thinking about the reaction of their parents.

"This is our moment; we should be celebrating this moment. These are school kids; they should be writing exams. Now they're here, imagine if one of them got shot, the parents send their children to school, imagine if they had been shot while they should be at school writing exams right now."

SABC Sport has also learned that the SAFA national head office, doesn’t have a Head of Security (since Mlungisi Ncame left for the Premier Soccer League in 2021), a key position occupied by a person who would plan adequately for these kinds of events and international matches that the organization hosts.