Johannesburg – Fierce opponents of the vuvuzela will gloat and pat themselves on the back to hear a debate about banning what they called a “monstrous instrument” during World Cup 2010 has been reignited.
Spokespeople at the Premier Soccer League have been quoted as saying the vuvuzela could face a ban given that it has featured prominently in acts of hooliganism, most recently when a lone hooligan jumped the barriers of Moses Mabhida Stadium and encroached on to the pitch to lash Lwandile Mfiki, the referee, with the trumpet.
We hear from the anti-vuvuzela brigade that barring fans from carrying this plastic instrument into the stadium would most likely have prevented an attack on Mfiki during the Golden Arrows-Kaizer Chiefs match earlier this month.
This is missing the point entirely. A lunatic departing his seat some 100 metres away, jumping over barriers and getting to a mid-pitch referee exposes security at the PSL games as grossly inadequate. This is what has to be addressed.
Back to the vuvuzela. I have to concur that there are times when it can be distracting and annoying.
It makes it difficult to hear announcements at stadiums, and heaven knows what would happen if there had to be an emergency evacuation, with some fans unable to keep it silent when asked to.
You can barely hear national anthems being sung inside the stadium because some fool or fools always decide to blow the vuvuzela. Ditto the minute of silence, which can never be even half-a-second of silence in the presence of the monotonous vuvuzela.
While I do not agree that it’s part of our culture to carry this instrument, it has over the past decade evolved into a uniquely South African trumpet, synonymous with the domestic game. You know there’s a Soweto Derby when, at 6am on a Saturday, you’re awoken by the annoying sound of the vuvuzela.
But for all its irritating side, can the vuvuzela really be blamed for poor security at PSL games?
Let’s go back to the Mfiki incident. The lunatic who attacked the referee managed to get to him undetected. What if the fan was carrying a knife or an object which could have threatened the referee’s life?
The dexterous Mfiki will have been thankful to see the fan was carrying only a vuvuzela and commendably, the referee stood his ground, merely ducking to avoid getting lashed full on with the instrument.
But if the attacker was carrying a knife, for instance, I have no doubt Mfiki would have run around the Moses Mabhida pitch in panic. Instead he did not even require medical attention after being hit on the back with a vuvuzela, confirming my suspicion that this instrument is just being used as a scapegoat to cover inefficiencies in PSL security.
The fact of the matter is a fan should not have been allowed anywhere near the referee, whether or not he was going to “assault” him with a vuvuzela.
The PSL have to take a hard look at their security arrangements and stop pinning their inefficiency solely on some plastic instrument.
I agree that the vuvuzela, because it is cheap, is easy for fans to dispense with. When they are frustrated, they can throw it on to the pitch, like it happened several years ago following Kaizer Chiefs’ loss to Bidvest Wits at FNB Stadium.
But in that match, fans also uprooted stadium chairs, and set them alight. They surely could not have used the vuvuzela to break the chairs, let alone start the fire!
This points to a generally poor security, which domestic football authorities have forsaken for years. The truth is hooligans do not always have to be in possession of a vuvuzela, like we saw recently in England, when Newcastle United fans rioted after their club’s loss to Sunderland.
If the PSL ban the vuvuzela, it may be because some among their executive – like the visitors to our shores three years ago – also find it irritating. It certainly cannot be that it causes harm (besides maybe to your eardrum).
*Follow Matshe on Twitter @Nkareng