Blame violence on JZ

Saturday's football fans were only following an example from two nights before when they invaded the Loftus Versfeld pitch.

If Jacob Zuma can send in his goons when he's 6-0 down, what's wrong with a football fan doing it, too?

As one passionate football fan said on Saturday, half joking but fully indignant: "Blame Jacob Zuma."

Parliament's "security detail" and the football fans have much in common. For both, violence is an easy option: we don't like what we see, or hear, so we'll resort to the heavy, sharrup hand.

The culprits in parliament were easy to identify: they wore white shirts. The easy assumption at Loftus was that the black-and-white shirts were to blame, but a few yellow-shirted felons soon joined in, possibly in retaliation. Yet it's hard to believe that the supporters of a team leading by half-a-dozen to nil would be inclined to violence, especially at the risk of the game being annulled.

On Saturday afternoon Percy Tau was the red rag to Pirates supporters. On Thursday night, Julius Malema was the red rag, or overall and hard hat, to Jacob Zuma. Tau's goal, the sixth for Sundowns in the 82nd minute, was the equivalent of Malema's point of order in the opening minutes.

One big difference between Saturday and Thursday was that at Loftus the referee was helpless; in parliament the referee was complicit.

So what now? Will parliament and the Pusillanimous Soccer League (PSL) at last show some guts? It's hard to tell with so many Zuma sycophants in the Cape Town riotous assembly, but it's a good bet that the Pretoria riotous assembly will be treated with the usual apathy.

The PSL will stamp its feet, huff and puff, as it did this week, and issue a fine. Where it really hurts, no points will be deducted. The carpet will again reveal bulges.

Pirates chairman Irvin Khoza says the law must take its course. That's a lot of faith in a law that still hasn't been able to charge, let alone prosecute, anyone for the murder, in front of witnesses, of his star goalkeeper Senzo Meyiwa two years ago.

The PSL said it would consult "its stakeholders". We know who those are: the clubs who call the shots. The clubs that persuaded the PSL to cancel matches for six weeks in what should have been the busiest time of the season (no Boxing Day programme of football here). The excuse was flimsy: some of the top clubs would have players at the Africa Cup of Nations, a tournament at which South Africa was not even represented.

Of course something should be done about football hooliganism. Just don't depend on the PSL to do it.