At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.01 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Jomo Cosmos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Jomo Cosmos pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
“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.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Sifiso Zungu kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Samukelo Zikalala provided it, and the 9.23 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Judas Moseamedi provided it, and the 8.76 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Chippa United have accepted the money. What Jomo Cosmos do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
The deal with Polokwane City is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Jayden Adams 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.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Jomo Cosmos and University of Pretoria, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Jomo Cosmos offered $180.0K; Mamelodi Sundowns said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Judas Moseamedi. 4‑2 against University of Pretoria, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
He is 21 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Nkosinathi Sibisi 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sihle Nduli 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.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Teboho Erasmus after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Platinum Stars? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
Thato Mabena 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.
Free State Stars next, and one man in the Orlando Pirates dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Deon Hotto 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.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Makhehleni Makhaula, and the manager let it.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
Thato Mabena 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.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Ajax Cape Town in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
3 goals in 11 games at Jomo Cosmos — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Orlando Pirates updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at Orlando Pirates that is a harder question to answer.
In brief
The dugoutKabelo Moagi knocks on the manager's door
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Jomo Cosmos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Ajax Cape Town held the lead for 2 minutes, which is not long enough to enjoy it. Jomo Cosmos answered before the celebration had properly finished, and the shape of the afternoon changed with it.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Sifiso Zungu after 2‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Gomolemo Kekana has come out of that comparison in the side, and Jomo Cosmos have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Samukelo Zikalala is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Jayden Adams 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.
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 35 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Jomo Cosmos told Gomolemo Kekana something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
9 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Orlando Pirates they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Yanela Mbuthuma 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sihle Nduli was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Orlando Pirates know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Nkosinathi Sibisi has written the date down.
Jayden Adams 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Gomolemo Kekana has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Gomolemo Kekana. 1‑0 against Maritzburg United, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
At 21 he has spent a month being better than everybody his age in the league, which is a different and harder thing than one good afternoon. Jomo Cosmos will try very hard not to make too much of it.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Samukelo Zikalala provided it, and the 8.96 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Judas Moseamedi 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.
7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Jomo Cosmos and University of Pretoria in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
He is 21 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Goalkeepers do not get to make mistakes; they get to make goals. He made one, he knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 3‑4 defeat, delivered by Sifiso Zungu to a room that had heard them before.
Involvement in 2 goals, from a player who spent the ninety minutes doing the thing a manager actually wants: being where the ball was going to end up. 7.93 beside his name.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Jomo Cosmos and Golden Arrows, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Jomo Cosmos asked and Golden Arrows said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
12 seasons and 154 appearances, all of them here. Careers like this are not designed; they happen to a certain kind of man at a certain kind of club, and this town has one.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Jomo Cosmos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
Jomo Cosmos have made the call to Mamelodi Sundowns. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
A loan enquiry to Orlando Pirates: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.