A delay that could have been avoided

Editorial Comment
THE INAUGURAL Masiyephambili marathon was dampened, albeit a bit, by the delayed start which was unfortunate and could surely have been avoided.

THE INAUGURAL Masiyephambili marathon was dampened, albeit a bit, by the delayed start which was unfortunate and could surely have been avoided.

– Innocent Kurwa

Nonetheless, in the end the 42km race ended on a successful note, what with the perfect weather for a gruelling distance and congratulations to Andrew Chimbidzai and Lizzie Chokore for winning the men’s and women’s titles, respectively.

The delay was caused by athletes wanting assurance on the prize money — apparently because they feared they might run for nothing, so to speak — after they alleged, running in a race they still had to be paid for last year.

Surely the way to go was to speak to the organisers long before the day of the race — after all we had all known about this marathon for well over a month and who the organisers were. The assurances athletes wanted, while very legitimate, should had been sought and obtained, well before Sunday.

Organisers should be congratulated for weathering down the storm and still managing to stage a very successful marathon although it is rather saddening for athletics that only a single woman completed the full course.

While affirmative action, or gender mainstreaming, can be advanced in a lot of areas, it cannot, unfortunately, be applied to running a marathon otherwise this would have been the best opportunity to apply it and ensure that a good number of our women ran the full course!

  • The Premier Soccer League (PSL) administration has acted swiftly and decisively on the country’s two biggest football clubs, Highlanders and Dynamos, following incidents of missile throwing during their high-octane match at Barbourfields Stadium last week and they certainly deserve some pat on the back.

The PSL fined each of the two clubs $8 000, quite a hefty amount in Zimbabwe by any standard and especially given how hard it is to get that amount of money and the opportunity cost — being the alternative choices this money could have been applied to — of such a huge figure.

Whether the PSL fine is adequate enough to act as a deterrent — as the courts would say — to violence in future is something that is debatable.

What, however, is pleasing is that the PSL took very little time to act and also acted decisively. In the law courts they say that justice delayed is justice denied.

The PSL made sure they did not commit such unfairness by acting swiftly.

In addition, by fining both teams the same amount the PSL has acted fairly and with admirable impartiality.

According to the match referee’s report there were two similar incidents of missile throwing, one from each of two ends of the stadium easily identifiable with each of the two protagonists.

There was, therefore, every reason that Highlanders and Dynamos be treated equally, whatever scales were used to arrive at the level of blameworthiness.

The PSL decision also sends a clear signal on at least three important fronts: There is zero tolerance — at least at the PSL — to violence; fan behaviour costs their clubs heavily and clubs need to do something to educate supporters on responsible behaviour and rein in their fans and supporters.

The first one, zero tolerance to violence is obviously a reaction of the powers that be to incidents during matches and clubs become victims to violence perpetrated by their fans and supporters, but the clubs can mitigate this by attending to the other two factors.

In other words, clubs must, at all times and opportunities ensure that their fans and supporters know that their actions at matches can cost the club dearly, in terms of both money and reputation. Such education and awareness should be continuous and an unending gospel — quite honestly at the level of a church preaching against sinning, until violence is eliminated.

Football is a family sport, but at present most decently behaved families would not want to spend an afternoon at a football match, especially one pitting Highlanders and Dynamos, whether at Barbourfields or Rufaro Stadium.

This is so noting the damage to cars and teargas throwing after the match is enough painful evidence, much as each of the clubs may not want this honest assessment.

While we have not yet reached the sophistication of developed countries where there is CCTV —closed circuit television — in our stadiums something can be done to identify the individuals that are flash points of violence, including vulgar language, at matches.

In addition to police and security details at matches, clubs can also recruit their own marshals to sit on the terraces at strategic positions and whose duty would be to monitor a given section of the terraces and identify trouble rousers who throw missiles onto football pitches or who are drunk and disturb the peace of the stadium through vulgar language.

It is so easy to hear vulgar language and identify its origin as it is often shouted at one’s highest (loudest) voice!

These marshals should be distinctly identifiable so that people on the terraces who want to seek assistance, especially reporting someone who is being a nuisance, can easily find them and also to give a clear signal that “you are being watched”.

Also, these marshals would train their eyes on the terraces all the time rather than follow the play on the field.

Surely the cost a club would pay to these marshals would be less than $8 000 a whole season, this against losing the same amount of money — money the club hardly affords, in 90 minutes!

The swiftness of the PSL is in stark contrast to the procrastination so evident at Zifa.

It is amazing that the country is still waiting for finalisation of the case against Harare City FC chairman Leslie Gwindi — allegations against him are that he attacked Zifa over the appointment of former Warriors coach Klaus-Dieter Pagels and also attacked Delta Beverages who sponsor the PSL championship.

For those not in the know, the allegations against Gwindi emanate from an address at the Bulawayo Press Club and yours truly chaired the discussion.

In a country where free speech is enshrined in the Constitution, it is surprising Gwindi is being charged, in the first place, but, more importantly, why is it taking so long to conclude the case? Justice delayed is justice denied, by the way.

But more fundamentally, the timing of the hearing, which now appears to be in full flow, raises some eyebrows.

Has it got anything to do with hamstringing Gwindi in the Zifa elections that are just round the corner or is it mere coincidence?

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