A Johannesburg businessman has offered to pay for a full year’s salary for the security guard who was assaulted during the soccer violence at Durban’s Moses Mabhida Stadium on Saturday.
Times Live reported that Blaine Josephs‚ founder of the Billion Forex Group‚ decided to make the kind gesture after he saw the image of the helpless security guard being beaten with chairs‚ punched and booted by angry fans‚ following Kaizer Chiefs’ loss to Free State Stars in the semi-final of the Nedbank Cup challenge.
Spectators went on a rampage, ripping out seats, setting fires in the stands, damaging TV cameras and other equipment, and also attacking security guards. Players had to run off the field while over 18 people were injured during the mayhem. The damages are estimated at around R3-million for just audio equipment, which was used for the match entertainment. Speakers around the field were kicked to pieces, and according to technicians, several items were stolen.
Two men have since been arrested and charged with public violence and malicious damage to property following the pitch invasion and appeared in the Durban Magistrates’ Court on Monday.
There was also some confusion after social media users reported that the security guard was a woman who had died on Sunday as a result of ‘her’ injuries sustained during the attack but the security guard’s name and gender were revealed during a press conference on Monday hosted by PSL chairman Irvin Khoza.
He said that the security guard, Sabela Maziba, had been treated for head injuries and already discharged from hospital.
Josephs told TimesLive that he had been searching for the security guard after seeing the photos and went as far as hiring a private investigator to track him down.
“I’ve been on the phone the entire morning trying to find him. When I saw the pictures on Twitter on Sunday morning‚ I thought to myself ‘no human being should go to work and be assaulted like that’. I’m sure in a perfect world‚ he would have loved to stay home with his family on a Saturday night. He went to work to feed his family and that had to happen to him.
It’s unacceptable. What makes it worse is that this gentleman is probably a breadwinner and will have to return to work as soon as he is healed.
That in itself is traumatic.”
Josephs has agreed to match whatever Maziba was getting paid at his company for a full year, while others have taken to social media to offer assistance with medical bills.
https://twitter.com/PatrickConroySA/status/988136510372417538
This incredible show of compassion has restored our faith in humanity after the shocking event. Together we are always better.
It was Fred Rogers who told the story of how when he was a boy and would see scary things in the news, his mother would say to him, ‘Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping’.
It was that story that stuck with him and so many, especially in times of disaster, we can always be comforted by realizing that there are still so many helpers — so many caring people in this world.
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