The Sunday Mail
Sir 18area.coms
HIGHLANDERS’ chief executive Ndumiso Gumede showed great agility as he fluctuated between the brilliant and the ludicrous last week. Yes, everyone is capable of saying both the witty and the silly but it takes some special kind of skill to churn out both in one interview, churn out both when commenting on one subject.
It takes great confusion to be able to do that.
Gumede is a special case; he pulled it off last week without breaking a sweat.
He easily flipped between the brilliant and the ludicrous. One would be forgiven for thinking that Gumede was born to do it.
In the aftermath of the barbaric acts we witnessed at Barbourfields on August 14, emotions have been running high and Gumede has been talking himself into a bad joke.
At first Gumede sounded all mature as he slammed some Highlanders hooligans for causing pandemonium soon after their match against Chicken Inn.
He ticked all the right boxes, even likening assaulting a police officer to treason.
Then demons infiltrated him and with Magaya yet to arrive in Bulawayo, Gumede wandered down the path to lunacy – head grey, rear exposed and the media lenses firmly focused.
The Bosso chief executive suggested that the Highlanders fans were forced to be violent by the manner in which the referee handled the Bulawayo derby.
“It is also important in such situations to try and look back and ask what the causes of the violence are. The performance of the referee left a lot to be desired … we were also denied three clear penalties,” said Gumede as the demonic spell set in.
I am Legion because we are many!
Gumede wasn’t done yet.
He went on to desperately try and link the violence by unruly Bosso fans to unemployment and “other underlying factors”.
“There seems to be some underlying factors that now find space to be vented through football such as drug addiction and unemployment among others,” he said.
Good gosh Gumede, you need help. Fellow Zimbabweans what is this, palm wine, nyaope, Histalix or all three?
So if Gums is to be believed the violence we witnessed at BF last weekend was not caused by a clique of Bosso hooligans, who are increasingly turning the stadium into a hell hole, but by referee Nkosikhona Moyo’s poor day in office?
In the weird world of Gumede, fans are allowed to run amok when they feel the referee has given their team the short end of the stick.
In his wisdom – or apparent lack thereof – Gumede reckons unemployment is to blame for the violent tendencies that some Bosso fans exhibit on a regular basis.
But does one need to be unemployed to carry knives and other weapons to the stadium and sing tribal songs like some Bosso fans are known to do?
No Gums, they are just hooligans.
We don’t need to remind you that unemployment had nothing to do with Bosso fans invading the pitch and assaulting their Caps United counterparts during last year’s Bob Super Cup semi-final.
And what “other factors” pushed Bosso fans into holding their team hostage at Hartsfield in 2014 when ZPC Kariba inflicted a 1-3 defeat on the former champions?
It’s about time people – including the journalists – stop making excuses for a clique of maniacs who come to BF to look for the slightest excuse to exhibit their true violent behaviour.
And this nonsense that has a standard US$2 000 fine set for cases whereby fans invade the pitch has to be revisited because clearly this is not deterrent enough.
Gumede even bragged that he set aside the US$2 000 long before Bosso had been summoned before the PSL disciplinary committee.
How about having serial offending teams playing before empty stadiums once in a while?
Sir exits the scene!
- Sir is social media commentator and writes this satirical column in his personal capacity. Feedback: [email protected]
