Several posters have stated that they have taken similar 'wrong turns' at night, fortunately without consequence. As a pax with great respect for the safety culture of the aviation industry, I would like to know if such incidents are reported/investigated as they would be (I think) if they happened in the air.
It appears that this precise event had occurred before at JNB (not to mention many other airports), but not with an aircraft with sufficient wingspan to cause an accident. In which case it was truly an accident waiting to happen, which I would have hoped could have been identified and mitigated if previous incidents had been reported and responded to.