McKenzie’s first strike is commendable

Sadaam Maake, the so-called president of the South African National Association of Supporters Union (Sanasu) and his friends, colleagues, comrades or whatever they use to refer to themselves are a bunch of disappointments.

Minister of Sports, Arts and Culture Gayton McKenzie’s first strike from his new office was to announce that he would close the tap on funding overseas trips for “super fans”.

Some of us did not even know a body such as Sanasu existed or that its members’ trips were funded by millions of taxpayers’ money.

The reason we did not know about the supporters’ union is simply because it has not taken a stand on anything up until now.

How could its members be up for that when there is an array of better causes that need their newfound recognition as super fans?

Their comrade, Botha Msila, never misses a chance to wail to anyone who cares to ask and listen about how he feels about the demise of his beloved Bloemfontein Celtic after it was sold to Durban and changed to Royal AM.

If super fans were serious about standing for something, wouldn’t they be fighting to be recognised by the governing bodies, especially those of football – we need to be honest; that is the sport that gave birth to their existence.

They could exist to have a word in the madness of sales of their beloved football clubs. They could exist to have a say on how the clubs were run.

They could exist to put a stop to their beloved clubs being treated as spaza shops and “do as we please” family businesses.

They could exist to force their beloved clubs to straighten their development structures. They could exist for their beloved clubs to adopt the schools their children go and thus build bridges for children’s sporting futures.

There is no end to the list of sensible things they could and should stand for. It is the teams, federations, associations and sponsors that should, if they so chose to, look after them and not the people’s money.

Cape Times