For the umpteenth time on the local football scene, a coach has needed police protection against his own team’s fans. Over the past weekend, it was Kaizer Chiefs coach Arthur Zwane’s turn.
Unhappy with their side’s 2-3 loss to Golden Arrows at the Peter Mokaba Stadium in Polokwane, a section of the AmaKhosi faithful decided they would express their feelings about the team's performance by threatening violence against Zwane.
As already stated, this is a longstanding culture in the local game. Even the much admired Pitso Mosimane has in the past had to depend on the SAPS to protect him from fans baying for his blood.
In the past fans have even threatened coaches at training grounds without suffering any reprisals.
Many clubs have relied on the notorious phrase “we are unable to guarantee the coach’s safety” as a ruse to fire the incumbent without having to account for the penalties related to terminating the contract prematurely.
The culture continues because of SA’s indifference to attending to basic law enforcement. Elsewhere in this publication we carry stories of incidents of communities taking the law into their own hands.
While those stories and that of Zwane needing police protection from the fans seem at face value unconnected, they both express a disregard for the law or low expectation of anyone made to pay for their act.
The recurring theme in mob justice is the expression of a community’s loss of faith in law enforcement to right the wrongs they feel aggrieved by.
Fans who threaten coaches do so because they do not believe that the police have the capacity or appetite to enforce the laws of the land. That fans are willing to act in a clearly criminal manner in front of TV cameras underscores just how they see the SAPS as impotent to act against them and enforce the law.
This has to change. Threatening a coach is and must be regarded as a crime of intimidation.
Football coaches, like all others in the country, have a right to expect that law enforcement will act to defend their right to safety and security, and act against those who encroach on this right.
Until a fan or fans are arrested, prosecuted and convicted for this loutish behaviour, Zwane will not be the last football coach to be harassed as he was on Sunday. Worse still, the culture of lawlessness and impunity will deepen.
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