The South African Police Service (SAPS) deserves praise for dealing with the violent protesters who call themselves Red Card Israel, who were causing chaos at Loftus Versfeld Stadium in Pretoria during a football match between South Africa and Malawi on 11 May.
The political protest staged in the middle of the football lovers was not as peaceful as the activists claimed, hence the police were compelled to act swiftly to allow the beautiful game to be played.
It is quite crucial to depoliticise sports in South Africa and enable sports to become the point of uniformity in our diverse society. This will help to maintain the integrity of sports and to keep divisive ideologies outside sports. We must not allow politicians or activists to exploit the beautiful game in pursuance of their narrow and divisive political ends.
While it is commonly argued that sport and politics are inseparable, there is a greater need to separate the two.
Consensus
Sportsmen and fans have diverse political and ideological views; however, there is a consensus amongst many that politics should be kept out of sport. Fans are interested in the beauty of the game, watching the pure talent and skill of sportsmen on the field. The stadium is filled with diverse people who hold different political opinions. It would be unwise to further disenfranchise people who are trying to use sports as a tool towards unitication.
To make matters worse, it is not ideal to allow activists to entrench their divisive ideology amongst South Africans who have their domestic problems, which they are battling to address. These questionable activists are not concerned with challenges faced by the South Africans on local issues such as skyrocketing crime, a surging unemployment rate, poverty, corruption, landlessness, and many other socio-economic challenges affecting especially black people who are living in poor living conditions.
Do they even care about the plight of black South Africans?
We must be concerned as a country by the activities of violent protesters whose political intent is to militarise our society, as we see in many Arab countries in the Middle East region, European countries, and the US. It is necessary to squash any symptom of terrorism in South Africa, and show that we do not tolerate any sort of violence, especially by people who have no regard for the needs of South Africans and are obsessed with foreign nations.
Not create conducive environment
We must be careful not to create a conducive environment for terrorism to thrive in our country, as owing to our porous borders, we already have an internal threat. There are undocumented unknown foreigners who pose a security threat.
The first allegiance for those protesters, as they claim to be South Africans, should be to their country, South Africa. They must show loyalty by prioritising South Africa before they invite fellow South Africans to join their anti-Israel crusade. We must be very wary of certain South Africans who have no regard whatsoever for the country they claim is theirs.
More than 80 South Africans are killed each single day, but we are not seeing any local campaign by the people who are talking about #FreePalestine. South Africans should be left to focus on their domestic issues.
South African sports fans are unique across the world in terms of their friendliness and peaceful attitude. We normally observe this trend during the biggest sporting occasion known as the Soweto Derby (Orlando Pirates vs Kaizer Chiefs), where the opposing fans are sitting side by side and celebrating the game and their beloved teams.
It is a beautiful experience, uniquely South African, and stands in stark contrast to the violence and aggression that is normally seen in global sports events. Bringing aggression, protest, and divisiveness into the stadium is not just out of place, it’s un-South African. It is the preserve of people who do not understand our culture, or do not wish to be part of it.
The views of the writer are not necessarily the views of the Daily Friend or the IRR.
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