Tribalist spoils Bosso party?

A Highlanders fan, who displayed a shocking placard describing Shona people as "dogs" during his team's Premiership showdown against bitter rivals Dynamos at Barbourfields on Sunday, is being roundly condemned for his highly-inflammatory views.

The madman's moment of infamy was captured by photographer Paul Mundandi during Sunday's epic showdown between the country's two biggest and most successful football clubs before a huge and colourful crowd at Barbourfields.

Bosso, chasing their first league championship in exactly 10 years, rallied from a goal down to score twice in two minutes late in the second half and beat their biggest rivals for the first time in a league match at Barbourfields since Highlanders downed DeMbare 2-0 on July 29, 2006.

Sunday's victory, which sparked wild celebrations in the City of Kings, meant Bosso completed a double over their biggest rivals for the first time in 10 years following an impressive and deserved 2-0 victory at Rufaro earlier this year.

The victory has sparked hopes among Bosso fans that their team has broken the jinx which was cursing their campaign to win the league title and coach Elroy Akbay and his men can now march in the final seven games to glory even though they still trail championship leaders FC Platinum by six points.

"Coincidentally and ironically, I was the team manager in 2006 when Bosso completed a double over Dynamos and that was the last time we won the championship," Highlanders secretary-general, Emmet Ndlovu, told the Chronicle.

"I have a feeling at the back of my mind that things are beginning to happen. It's so good to beat Dynamos home and away in one season. We're not giving up yet on the championship, but all we want to do is finish in a comfortable position."

Ralph Matema, one of the few survivors from that championship-winning Bosso team of 2006, which finished 11 points ahead of runners-up Motor Action, scored the winner after being introduced as a second half substitute as Dutch coach Akbay went for broke in search of the killer punch.

Highlanders' chairman Peter Dube called for calm ahead of domestic football's biggest game and while there was the usual banter between the rival sets of supporters at Barbourfields on Sunday, his appeals were largely heeded, with the match passing without reports of major incidents of violence which usually mar this high-profile encounter.

A few weeks ago, Barbourfields was turned into a battleground after rampaging fans clashed with police in the wake of the controversial manner in which the Bulawayo Derby between Bosso and defending champions Chicken Inn ended.

But Bosso's sweet victory on Sunday — which on the basis of the chances they created was probably deserved — is being spoiled, to some extent, by the sickening image of one of their deranged fans describing the Shona people as "dogs."

While the majority of the fans at Barbourfields on Sunday, on both sides, should be cheered for the way they conducted themselves, even when the referee appeared to be getting his calls wrong, with some even carrying placards denouncing violence, the image of that Bosso madman, describing the Shona people as "dogs", has provoked anger and is rightly been condemned.

"We believe in you Akbay," the provocative placard read. "Rest in peace MASHONA ZINJA (DOGS)".

Social media has been buzzing since that image was published on a number of platforms with some people even calling for the Bosso leaders to bar the fan from the club's matches in the future.

"There is no question that the rivalry between Dynamos and Highlanders fans runs very, very deep and you hear provocative songs from either side whenever the two clubs meet and a lot of it has become tolerable between the two sides," one commentator said.

"But, when you look at that poster, it appears to cross the line because it's such tribalism that tends to provoke trouble at our football grounds because describing one tribe as dogs is not correct.

"There is this misconception that all Shona people support Dynamos and this is not correct because there are some who support CAPS United and are fiercely opposed to DeMbare as much as those who support Highlanders.

"And, when one looks at this poster, it tends to bracket all the Shona people as a bunch of dogs and that is not correct and should be condemned in the strongest terms possible.

"The other thing one has to consider is that there are some Shona players in the Highlanders team and the scorer of the winning goal on Sunday, Ralph Matema, is one of them and that man, with his placard, was effectively saying to them that you can serve my team but you aren't a person and that is horrible.

"The good thing is that the majority of Highlanders fans don't think that way and they went to the stadium to enjoy a game of football and when their team won, which their players deserved on the balance of play, they celebrated and they deserved to be happy."