Marked for Ayabonga Gwangqa
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad17 Sep 2029
A fracture rules Francis Baloyi out for 86 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Polokwane City will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Player ratings17 Sep 2029
Successful dribbles: 28. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad17 Sep 2029
Tlou Nkwe was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Player ratings17 Sep 2029
Ninety minutes of Simon Ramabu at his very best
Marked 8.12. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Polokwane City.
The dugout17 Sep 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ayabonga Gwangqa, and the manager let it.
Match15 Sep 2029
It needed Simon Ramabu to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Jomo Cosmos, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
The dugout17 Sep 2029
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Squad17 Sep 2029
Percy Mokotjo is the weekend's best young player
At 17 he is being measured against the rest of the division's kids and coming out in front. The senior version of this award is where the club would like this to lead.
The dugout17 Sep 2029
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad30 Jul 2029
136 days out for Francis Baloyi after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Polokwane City will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Squad30 Jul 2029
Ayabonga Gwangqa has improved at 25, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 4 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Squad30 Jul 2029
Words at Polokwane City training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Brian Bwire is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Transfer targets30 Jul 2029
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad30 Jul 2029
Tlou Nkwe and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Market30 Jul 2029
The name of Lindokuhle Mathebula has come up in conversations Polokwane City were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Transfer targets30 Jul 2029
Sparta Prague have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
The dugout30 Jul 2029
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad23 Jul 2029
Bradley Mphela damages knee ligaments — 16 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 16 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Squad23 Jul 2029
143 days out for Francis Baloyi after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Polokwane City will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market23 Jul 2029
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Polokwane City have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Market23 Jul 2029
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Boardroom23 Jul 2029
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Squad23 Jul 2029
Monty Batlhabane and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad23 Jul 2029
At 30 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 4 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
Transfer targets23 Jul 2029
Panathinaikos have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
The dugout23 Jul 2029
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Thabang Matuludi is on it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad11 Jun 2029
33 days out for Thabang Matuludi after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Polokwane City will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market11 Jun 2029
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Bidvest Wits waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Polokwane City is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Transfer targets11 Jun 2029
The clubs have shaken hands with Ajax Cape Town; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Transfer targets11 Jun 2029
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Djoliba is saying, and nobody at Polokwane City is enjoying the guessing.
Transfer targets11 Jun 2029
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad11 Jun 2029
Tlou Nkwe and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout11 Jun 2029
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad11 Jun 2029
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Meshua Mello commits to Polokwane City for another 3 years.
The dugout11 Jun 2029
Rodney Maphangule has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Polokwane City will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad4 Jun 2029
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 40 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market4 Jun 2029
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Polokwane City, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market4 Jun 2029
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Polokwane City is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad4 Jun 2029
Monty Batlhabane was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad4 Jun 2029
Brian Bwire falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Transfer targets4 Jun 2029
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Market4 Jun 2029
Add another name to the list: Bidvest Wits have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Meshua Mello. The answer from Polokwane City has not changed — yet.
The dugout4 Jun 2029
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Market4 Jun 2029
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match26 Feb 2029
The season ends: position 10 for Polokwane City
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 38 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
Market26 Feb 2029
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Polokwane City can pretend not to have heard.
Squad26 Feb 2029
Monty Batlhabane and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Match24 Feb 2029
1‑3 to Mamelodi Sundowns, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout26 Feb 2029
Brian Bwire gets it from the manager
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad26 Feb 2029
100 times in these colours, in all weathers and under four or five different managers. That kind of service is quietly disappearing from the game.
The dugout26 Feb 2029
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
The dugout26 Feb 2029
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The dugout26 Feb 2029
Something was said to Keagile Malepe and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings25 Dec 2028
Successful dribbles: 35. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match23 Dec 2028
5 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Squad25 Dec 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Polokwane City this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad25 Dec 2028
Lebohang Mankga falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Player ratings25 Dec 2028
7.43, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Polokwane City had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
The dugout25 Dec 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Kgaogelo Ramushu, and the manager let it.
The dugout25 Dec 2028
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Lebogang Phiri after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
The dugout25 Dec 2028
Nobody at Polokwane City will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Match23 Dec 2028
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Jomo Cosmos defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match30 Sep 2028
8 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Squad2 Oct 2028
38 days out for Puleng Marema after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Polokwane City will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market2 Oct 2028
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad2 Oct 2028
Monty Batlhabane was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad2 Oct 2028
Kgaogelo Ramushu falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Player ratings2 Oct 2028
Tlou Nkwe stands above it all
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.53 on the card, and the Polokwane City support went home talking about one name.
The dugout2 Oct 2028
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Polokwane City told Ayabonga Gwangqa something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Player ratings2 Oct 2028
Successful dribbles: 14. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout2 Oct 2028
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad24 Jul 2028
98 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Polokwane City lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad24 Jul 2028
110 days out for Puleng Marema after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Polokwane City will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market24 Jul 2028
Lebohang Nkaki has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Polokwane City they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad24 Jul 2028
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Monty Batlhabane is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Transfer targets24 Jul 2028
Polokwane City had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Atalanta, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Squad24 Jul 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Polokwane City this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets24 Jul 2028
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
The dugout24 Jul 2028
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Transfer targets24 Jul 2028
A loan move for David Nogueira is in the works
Polokwane City have made the call to Santos. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad12 Jun 2028
Stevens Goovadia damages knee ligaments — 42 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 42 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Squad12 Jun 2028
Meshua Mello breaks a bone — 32 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 32 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Transfer targets12 Jun 2028
Everything agreed with Racing Club, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad12 Jun 2028
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Brian Bwire was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets12 Jun 2028
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad12 Jun 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Polokwane City this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout12 Jun 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ayabonga Gwangqa, and the manager let it.
The dugout12 Jun 2028
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Thabang Matuludi is on it.
Market12 Jun 2028
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad22 May 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Stevens Goovadia
63 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Polokwane City lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad22 May 2028
Meshua Mello breaks a bone — 53 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 53 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market22 May 2028
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Polokwane City they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Boardroom22 May 2028
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Vincent Mtsweni has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Squad22 May 2028
Monty Batlhabane was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The dugout22 May 2028
Puleng Marema has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Polokwane City will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad8 May 2028
Puleng Marema damages knee ligaments — 20 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 20 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
The dugout8 May 2028
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Market8 May 2028
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Polokwane City they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad8 May 2028
Monty Batlhabane and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad8 May 2028
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Ayabonga Gwangqa commits to Polokwane City for another 4 years.
Squad8 May 2028
Brian Bwire falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The dugout8 May 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Lebohang Nkaki, and the manager let it.
The dugout8 May 2028
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Market8 May 2028
The Brian Bwire talk will not go away
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Polokwane City know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad1 May 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Puleng Marema
27 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Polokwane City lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market1 May 2028
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Polokwane City is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad1 May 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Polokwane City this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout1 May 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Sabelo Motsa, and the manager let it.
The dugout1 May 2028
Sabelo Motsa is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
The dugout1 May 2028
Nobody at Polokwane City will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad3 Apr 2028
58 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Polokwane City lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad3 Apr 2028
A fracture rules Meshua Mello out for 35 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Polokwane City will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The dugout3 Apr 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Polokwane City may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market3 Apr 2028
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Polokwane City is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad3 Apr 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Polokwane City this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad3 Apr 2028
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Brian Bwire was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout3 Apr 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ayabonga Gwangqa, and the manager let it.
The dugout3 Apr 2028
Sabelo Motsa is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
The dugout3 Apr 2028
Nobody at Polokwane City will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.