Punish Chiefs for their violent fans

There are few who witnessed the video footage of the mindless violence at Durban’s Moses Mabhida Stadium on Saturday who will forget that sickening moment when a thug’s foot crashed into the head of an already stricken security guard.

It was a piece of callous brutality which summed up the blood lust of the mob that went on the rampage after Kaizer Chiefs went out of the Nedbank Cup competition, losing 2-0 to the less fancied Free State Stars.

The explanation, from some fans, is that Chiefs’ long-suffering supporters had reached the end of their patience with their team, after three years without winning any major trophy. The loss and the subsequent rampage were also given as reasons for the resignation of coach Steve Komphela.

But the reality of what happened at the stadium goes far beyond football, although it is true that the sport in this country seems to have more than its fair share of violent followers.

This is just the latest – although most violent – in a list of fan riots, misbehaviour and stampedes which stretches back for years.

Football does certainly have to get its house in order and we would urge the strongest sanction on Kaizer Chiefs. Even though it is not morally right to punish the many for the sins of the few, we believe that, in this case, the team must be punished by playing games behind closed doors. This will hurt fans the most – and discourage the worst of them from similar behaviour in the future.

But what happened is also an indictment of our very dysfunctional society. If we don’t get what we want, we burn, we loot, we kill. Violence is our go-to answer for any problem.

And changing that attitude is going to take more than fine speeches.

For more news your way, follow The Citizen on Facebook and Twitter.