Punish Nigeria — South Africa sports minister reacts to Eric Chelle's 'juju' bust up

South Africa’s minister of sport, arts and culture, Gayton McKenzie, reacted sternly to Eric Chelle's penalty shootout bust-up against DR Congo, stating that Nigeria should be punished. 

The 51-year-old former politician turned businessman has been South Africa's sports minister since 2024. After clips of Chelle's aggressive antics during the penalty shootouts against DRC, which Nigeria eventually lost, made the rounds on the internet, McKenzie said they (South Africa) will look closely into the matter. 

“This is totally unacceptable behaviour; we will be looking very closely at this matter. This type of behaviour brings the game in disrepute. Nigeria should be punished for this unbecoming behaviour. This is football, not UFC,” he tweeted. 

Chelle's punishment, if any, is the ambit of CAF, not McKenzie, who is a government agent, and not the president of South Africa’s football association (SAFA). This fact was presented to him by many South Africans in the comment section, accusing the minister of misplaced priorities. 

Interestingly, McKenzie’s social media account is littered with xenophobic and xenophobia-adjacent tweets against Nigeria, including, but not limited to, one from 2024, where he said, “All your [Nigeria’s] kidnappers, drug dealers and violent criminals are in South Africa.”

The Super Eagles' road to the 2026 World Cup reached its end yesterday, after they were ousted by DRC via penalties. During the attempts, a clip showed Chelle charging aggressively towards the Congolese bench, seemingly angry at someone on their side. 

After the match, he explained the reason for his outburst, revealing that he caught a member of the Congolese contingent practising voodoo in a bid to influence the shootouts.