Kaizer Chiefs fans sent a message to the IEC ahead of the 2026 Local Government Elections ahead of the sold out Soweto derby encounter with Orlando Pirates that was hijacked by electioneering at the weekend.

Image: BackpagePix

Very often you’d come across a sports fanatic — usually from a privileged background — who subscribes to the infamous “sport and politics don’t mix” rhetoric.

Naïve, to say the least, since the history of politics and that of sports administration have painted a clear picture that the two are deeply intertwined and have been so since the beginning of time.

South Africa’s freedom, together with her readmission to international competitions, was built on the foundations of politics.

It was the South African Council on Sport (SACOS) that coined the famous anti-apartheid slogan of defiance: “No normal sport in an abnormal society”.

That went a long way towards addressing segregation in South African sport, where black and white athletes were barred from competing in the same leagues and events.

The love-hate relationship between sport and politics did not start nor end there. Many events thereafter, even in recent times, have gone on to show us that the two remain two parallel lanes of a rocky highway — or, in the South African context, a national road riddled with potholes.

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If you think of the world’s most prominent statesmen active right now, you would mention Donald Trump and maybe Vladimir Putin. It is well documented how their political decisions have shaped and disrupted global sporting events.

Take Putin’s invasion of Ukraine: a political move that has seen many Russian athletes barred from competing under their national colours in global sporting events.

Or consider US President Trump’s frequent interventions in global sporting events, including a phone call that rescinded a red card issued during a 2026 FIFA World Cup match. If we were to try and count all of Trump’s meddlesome antics, we would lose the point entirely.

But forget about the wider world; there is more than enough going on in South Africa daily to fill a whole library shelf.

South Africa remains a tricky place to practise a “sport and politics don’t mix” approach. All sporting facilities belong to the government and municipalities, with the state often called upon to fund this and that, and to intervene to enforce much-needed transformation targets.

Just recently, the government coughed up millions to the South African Football Association to fund the Video Assistant Referee (VAR).

Maybe it is the hypocrite in me, or maybe just my naïve side thinking that sport — especially the Beautiful Game, the Game of the Masses, football — can be kept pure of direct party politics.

The key phrase there is “party politics”.

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What brought this to mind was how the political parties competing in the November 4, 2026 Local Government Elections embarked on a last-minute scramble to jump onto the Premier Soccer League’s (PSL) popularity bandwagon.

I happened to be in northern KZN, in Ulundi to be precise, on Saturday, October 31 — the day the two giants of South African football, Orlando Pirates and Kaizer Chiefs, split the country in two as they met in a league match.

What caught my eye was how the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) went all out to set up a special public viewing area, which may have looked innocent to the eyes of a football-loving supporter, but turned out to be a grand political landmine.

Football was the drawcard, the Soweto derby was the vehicle, but electioneering was the order of the day.

There was more IFP merchandise on display than Pirates and Chiefs regalia put together. It did not stop there — and this was borderline disrespectful — as the sound guys used every little opening to blast the party’s slogans and songs.

While one was mulling over the IFP’s grand scheme, ANC President Cyril Ramaphosa took his party’s campaign trail directly into PSL headquarters on Monday, where he got the PSL Chairman singing: “You cannot go to government to ask for facilities to be upgraded, and then not make it a point to make a statement by voting”.

There is nothing wrong with encouraging citizens to vote, but it is distasteful when one party derives partisan capital from it.

Khoza’s civic plea came as Ramaphosa paid glowing tribute to the domestic top flight, describing the PSL as the best-administered sporting competition on the African continent and a vital driver of national morale.

“We are here just to pay tribute to the PSL for what they have achieved. They are the best-organised league on the continent, running the most popular sporting code,” Ramaphosa said.

“The chairperson was showing me the Nielsen measurements. He says their business is the ‘happiness index’, that they deal in the happiness of the people. And that is so true. Seventy-seven per cent of South Africans who love sport are supporters of football. Football has always been the top code.”

Best be careful, Mr President; it is often said that actually it is Kaizer Chiefs that controls the national happiness index, and right now they are far from jovial for they lost 2-1 to their archrivals at the weekend.