Let’s honour hero Senzo by ridding the country of guns

T SHOULD be FNB Stadium, not the Durban arena named after former SACP president Moses Mabhida, that South Africans from all walks of life as well as every nook and cranny of the country are flocking to today.

But thanks to some gun-toting heartless men, KwaZulu Natal – and not Gauteng – takes centre stage.

And when they assemble at that most magnificent World Cup venue, it won’t be to cheer any footballers to glory but rather to say farewell to a fallen hero.

Instead of watching him deny the likes of Bernard Parker and Kingston Nkhatha goals in the Soweto derby this afternoon, South Africa will see Senzo Meyiwa for the last time – the Orlando Pirates goalkeeper lying dead in his coffin, his life snuffed out by a bullet from a gun that was probably unlicensed.

INo wonder calls for stricter gun laws were raised this week. And football, in reacting to the senseless killing of its No 1 playing citizen – the country’s senior national team goalkeeper and captain – not only called off all professional matches but even suggested the erection of Meyiwa’s statue at Safa House.

There have been calls for the introduction of a sports Hall of Fame into which Meyiwa – as well as former middle distance runner Mbulaeni Mulaudzi and boxer Phindile Mwelase, both of whom are also being buried today – should be inducted.

All these are noble ideas – the need for the government to rid the country of guns imperative if our country is to lose its status as one of the world’s crime capitals. Ditto for the importance of honouring our stars.

But does it have to take a death for all this to happen? Did it have to take Senzo’s shooting for the Police Minister to realise we needed stricter gun controls?

Give me five South African families and I bet you that at least two of those must have experi- enced the loss of a loved one due to a shooting incident or some violent criminal act.

Will you blame them if they now felt that action against crime is only prioritised because it claimed the life of a famous soccer star?

This knee-jerk reaction to issues is a serious South African ill that we as a country need to get rid of if we are to live up to the huge potential we have to become a highly prosperous country.

Take the postponement of Premier Soccer League (both the Absa Premiership and National First Division) matches, for example. This happened only because many a soccer player and their coaches cried foul when only the Soweto derby was postponed.

That the league did not initially see the need to put off other matches despite Senzo’s status as a star of Bafana Bafana – whose death, therefore, would have touched players from other clubs, too – tells the story of a decision (postponing the derby) taken emotionally. Safa president Danny Jordaan called for a Senzo statue – made out of destroyed guns – to be erected at Safa House. And that is perhaps a good way to remember a man who has helped return some honour to Bafana while sending a message that this country won’t tolerate gun deaths any more.

But would Senzo have warranted a statue had he lived on and died a natural death? What of the other Bafana players – the likes of the Class of ’96 who won us the Africa Cup of Nations, the same guys who qualified us for our maiden World Cup? Will they be honoured similarly?

I suppose the death of a loved one, especially in such violent circumstances, will always induce a reaction of sorts. And with Senzo having been the national star he was, the outpouring of emotions was always going to be of the nature they are.