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Cosmas Zulu

Dingilizwe Ntuli Sports Editor
LAST week we criticised the police for their poor crowd control following ugly pitch invasion scenes during which Chicken Inn goalkeeper Elvis Chipezeze was attacked by unruly Caps United fans in the semi-final of the Easycall Cup at Barbourfields Stadium.

Fans also forced their way onto the pitch after the Highlanders and Dynamos encounter from the infamous Soweto stand on the following day after the match endangering the lives of players and leaving more than half a dozen people nursing wounds sustained from police dog bites.

They reacted positively to our criticism and deserve to be praised as that is the way a good police force should be.

We commend them for overhauling their crowd control tactics for Highlanders’ Easycall Cup clincher against Chicken Inn on Sunday afternoon. The police contained jubilant Bosso fans from the Soweto stand from invading the pitch at the end of the match and although the revelry may have suffered, the crowd control measures put in place were spot-on.

Unlike in the two semi-finals played at the same venue last week during which security measures were not properly put into place, there was no missile throwing in Sunday’s cup final.

The police executed a far more orderly approach by resisting the temptation of watching the match to keep an eagle’s eye on the thousands of fans in the stands and things went orderly.

They exercised extreme restraint when a handful of fans broke the barrier and entered the pitch unlike in previous encounters during which offending fans were mercilessly attacked for going onto the pitch.

We urge the police to continue exercising restraint by taking a softer approach through befriending the crowd and resorting only to minimum force and arrests when needed at our stadia. The police must understand that if they treat fans with respect, they can be the eyes and ears for police in case people start throwing missiles.

They must use a combination of plainclothes and uniformed officers during matches to identify trouble makers and quickly eject them from the stadium. But most importantly, our police must understand that most fans go to the stadium every weekend to have a good time, so there’s no need for their heavy-handed approach. This would make their job easier and help improve relations among fans in the stands.

We are proud of what the police officers did as it enabled Bosso fans to celebrate their team’s victory in a responsible way.