We are disappointed and note with concern that the many supporters with which we pride ourselves have turned to be our worst enemies following their display of a total disregard of authority, the hosting Ajax Cape Town and respect for their own players.

Whilst we are at pains to address their regrettable and cruel booing of our players in recent pre-season tournaments, we are currently faced with another challenge before the PSL’s Disciplinary Committee to account for their irresponsible and retrogressive behaviour during the proceedings in Cape Town. The booing has been a matter of concern and was yet again displayed to kill the confidence of our players during the tough encounter.

Looking back, we are painfully tempted to view some of our supporters as the worst behaved considering the number of times we have been hauled before the Disciplinary Committee. We may also be challenged to motivate for the banning of vuvuzelas if they are used as missile at any given stages of their discontentment with the decisions of the officials on the field. We view such behaviour not unique to Kaizer Chiefs, but an urgent matter that require serious intervention to be rooted out lest the country braces itself for insurmountable embarrassment when we host international events in the future.

Whilst we condemn such behaviour, we may not ignore the ineptitude of the security personnel during the match judging from their laxity and inability to intervene at the height of the disturbances. Evidence would show that for most times, the pavilion-based security literally ignored the missile throwing by standing as observers instead of acting decisively to apprehend or at least show some measure of authority. As hosts, we would have expected organizers to deploy more security but it became abundantly clear that a few reactionary securities were in force.

We also note that the biggest challenge facing our football in general is the root-cause that triggered our supporters’ reaction in our game against Ajax. Left unchallenged and unresolved, the cause may gravely affect our industry and embarrass us in the future. We therefore need to move swiftly to satisfy all stakeholders in addressing the major cause.

We therefore apologise to all stakeholders in football and regret the impact of such unsavoury behaviour of our supporters. We are however committed to embark on internal processes that may help address and eradicate such behaviour by engaging our affiliated supporters’ structures in identifying such perpetrators of violent acts in the stadium.

We also call for anyone who may shed light on such rogue supporters to inform the PSL and our administration so that we demonstrate our willingness to stop stadium violence.