Marked for Erick Erasmus
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings16 Aug 2027
Two goals and a mark of 8.14 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad16 Aug 2027
7 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Market16 Aug 2027
“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 The request is on a desk at Ajax Cape Town, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market16 Aug 2027
Add another name to the list: Jomo Cosmos have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Percy Mabunda. The answer from Ajax Cape Town has not changed — yet.
Match14 Aug 2027
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Ajax Cape Town and Chippa United in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Squad16 Aug 2027
At 19 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Match14 Aug 2027
Chippa United left with the points after a 2‑4 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Ramahlwe Zwane 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.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Words at Ajax Cape Town training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kgwadi Molepo 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market5 Jul 2027
Teboho Dala hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Ajax Cape Town can pretend not to have heard.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Bongani Erasmus is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 17 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Squad5 Jul 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Mnqobi Mzize and Ajax Cape Town agree another 4 years.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Ramahlwe Zwane and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Words at Ajax Cape Town training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kgwadi Molepo 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.
Boardroom5 Jul 2027
9 arrivals, an average age nobody would call a squad, and a set of parents being shown around a building their sons will spend more time in than at home. The scouting has already happened; today is only the paperwork.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad24 May 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ajax Cape Town this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad24 May 2027
Words at Ajax Cape Town training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luther Mokotjo 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.
Squad24 May 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Dean Manyama and Ajax Cape Town agree another 3 years.
The dugout24 May 2027
Percy Mabunda gets picked when it counts
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 Percy Mabunda is on it.
The dugout24 May 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Dean Manyama, and the manager let it.
The dugout24 May 2027
Percy Mabunda knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Percy Mabunda trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad10 May 2027
Luther Mokotjo 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.
Squad10 May 2027
Words at Ajax Cape Town training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nelson Ralenkoane 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.
The dugout10 May 2027
The manager makes an example of Erick Erasmus
“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.
Squad10 May 2027
Gift Tau signs a new deal
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Gift Tau commits to Ajax Cape Town for another 4 years.
The dugout10 May 2027
Gift Furman knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Ajax Cape Town, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market10 May 2027
The shop window has Sifiso Lorch in it
Ajax Cape Town have let the market know Sifiso Lorch can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.
From our football correspondent
Steady
The dugout3 May 2027
Erick Erasmus: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Ajax Cape Town have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market3 May 2027
“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 Ajax Cape Town, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad3 May 2027
Percy Mabunda 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.
Squad3 May 2027
Words at Ajax Cape Town training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luther Mokotjo 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.
Loan watch3 May 2027
“I watch every Ajax Cape Town game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Maritzburg United runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
The dugout3 May 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Thulani Erasmus, and the manager let it.
The dugout3 May 2027
Kgwadi Molepo asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
The dugout3 May 2027
Nobody at Ajax Cape Town 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
Crisis
Market8 Feb 2027
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Percy Mabunda reports back to Ajax Cape Town with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Transfer targets8 Feb 2027
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.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Percy Mabunda 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.
Match6 Feb 2027
0‑2 to Bloemfontein Celtic, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Transfer targets8 Feb 2027
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Ajax Cape Town will try again when the window opens; University of Pretoria may not be selling by then.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Luther Mokotjo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout8 Feb 2027
“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 dugout8 Feb 2027
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 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Morgan Lorch to a room that had heard them before.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Andile Dala makes the team of the month
Four or five weekends of consistency, measured against everybody else in the division. A quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market18 Jan 2027
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Ajax Cape Town people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Player ratings18 Jan 2027
Andile Dala, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.88
A mark of 7.88 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Player ratings18 Jan 2027
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.70 for the rest of it.
Transfer targets18 Jan 2027
$20.0K was the most the club would pay and University of Pretoria were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Transfer targets18 Jan 2027
Ajax Cape Town asked and Kaizer Chiefs said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad18 Jan 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ajax Cape Town this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The terraces18 Jan 2027
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.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Luther Mokotjo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad4 Jan 2027
7 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Market4 Jan 2027
Percy Mabunda hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Ajax Cape Town can pretend not to have heard.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Nelson Ralenkoane arrives at the club he grew up with
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Nelson Ralenkoane has, at Ajax Cape Town, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Transfer targets4 Jan 2027
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Ajax Cape Town have done the hard part with Orlando Pirates, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Ramahlwe Zwane is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Market4 Jan 2027
Add another name to the list: Black Aces have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Ramahlwe Zwane. The answer from Ajax Cape Town has not changed — yet.
Transfer targets4 Jan 2027
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.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Luther Mokotjo and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match2 Jan 2027
A point taken on 85 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The dugout28 Dec 2026
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Ajax Cape Town have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Thulani Mkhize is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Erick Erasmus 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.
Match26 Dec 2026
University of Pretoria left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Words at Ajax Cape Town training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luther Mokotjo 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.
Squad28 Dec 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Thamsanqa Mokotjo and Ajax Cape Town agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Morgan Lorch after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
Mandla Jali beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 15. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Musa Wakili, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.15, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
Andile Dala, 21, steals the show — 8.04
Marked 8.04 at 21, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Match19 Dec 2026
It finished 3‑2, and it was Percy Mabunda’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Ajax Cape Town.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Luther Mokotjo 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 terraces21 Dec 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Andile Dala 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.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
The manager makes an example of Erick Erasmus
“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.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Words at Ajax Cape Town training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Daniel Mjengu 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.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 3‑2, Morgan Lorch could afford to be generous.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Mandla Jali beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 22. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Luther Mokotjo 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.
Match12 Dec 2026
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mnqobi Mzize was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Ajax Cape Town are still strangers to each other
10 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.
Squad14 Dec 2026
An error at the back is a moment; an error in goal is a goal. Erick Erasmus knows it, the crowd knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Daniel Mjengu, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match5 Dec 2026
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 3‑0 against Kaizer Chiefs, and it could have been more.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Sifiso Mkhize, 19, plays like he has been here for years — 7.61
A mark of 7.61 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 19-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Ramahlwe Furman is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Match5 Dec 2026
6 matches without a win, and then this, against Kaizer Chiefs. Relief is a strange noise in a football ground and it was the only noise at the end.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Erick Erasmus 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.
The terraces7 Dec 2026
He is 22 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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Luther Mokotjo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
A performance of 8.02 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Ninety minutes of Luther Mokotjo at his very best
Marked 8.03. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Ajax Cape Town.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match28 Nov 2026
The run now stands at 6, and the questions being asked around Ajax Cape Town are no longer polite ones.
Squad30 Nov 2026
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Match28 Nov 2026
4 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Squad30 Nov 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ajax Cape Town this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match28 Nov 2026
0‑2 to Mamelodi Sundowns, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
Andile Dala 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.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
Mandla Jali beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 16. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑2 Morgan Lorch left the room before anybody could ask which.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Musa Wakili 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad16 Nov 2026
Erick Erasmus and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words at Ajax Cape Town training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luther Mokotjo 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.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
“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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Williams Zungu and Ajax Cape Town agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
No place for Mmatlou Sepale in the new shape
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Ajax Cape Town are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
Percy Mabunda gets picked when it counts
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 Percy Mabunda is on it.
Looking ahead16 Nov 2026
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Orlando Pirates in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Market16 Nov 2026
“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
Squad12 Oct 2026
Luther Mokotjo and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad12 Oct 2026
At 19 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kgwadi Molepo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Musa Wakili is not the player he was
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 37 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
Market12 Oct 2026
Sifiso Lorch is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Ajax Cape Town has been clear about where Sifiso Lorch stands, which is more than many ever get.
Market12 Oct 2026
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Ajax Cape Town, another week without a signature from Kgwadi Molepo.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
The manager makes an example of Thulani Erasmus
“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.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
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 Bradley Hlatshwayo is on it.
Market12 Oct 2026
The best deals are the ones the accountants never notice. Kgwadi Molepo arrives at Ajax Cape Town with his wages the only cost and something to prove the only clause.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad5 Oct 2026
7 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Luther Mokotjo, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.78
A mark of 7.78 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Ramahlwe Furman is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Erick Erasmus 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Luther Mokotjo 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 terraces5 Oct 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Mandla Jali 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.
Match3 Oct 2026
It finished 1‑0, and it was Luther Mokotjo’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Ajax Cape Town.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Evidence Mphela, and the manager let it.
Market5 Oct 2026
Teboho Dala told to find a new club
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Teboho Dala has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Ajax Cape Town.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad21 Sep 2026
8 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
No sign of nerves from Luther Mokotjo at 21 — 7.98
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Luther Mokotjo did not need any: 7.98, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Luther Mokotjo 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.
Match19 Sep 2026
A 2‑1 win over Free State Stars, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
The terraces21 Sep 2026
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.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 16. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Morgan Lorch, on a 2‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Words at Ajax Cape Town training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Thulani Grobler 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.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad17 Aug 2026
46 days out for Bradley Erasmus after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Ajax Cape Town will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Squad17 Aug 2026
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Luther Mokotjo and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
$100.0K was the most the club would pay and Mamelodi Sundowns were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
“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.
Match15 Aug 2026
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout17 Aug 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 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Morgan Lorch to a room that had heard them before.
Squad17 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Sifiso Mahlangu commits to Ajax Cape Town for another 3 years.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 13. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market3 Aug 2026
The bid was some way short and Ajax Cape Town did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad3 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ajax Cape Town this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Gift Furman 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 targets3 Aug 2026
Kaizer Chiefs 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 dugout3 Aug 2026
Siyabonga Furman asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Market3 Aug 2026
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Ramahlwe Erasmus has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Ajax Cape Town.
Squad3 Aug 2026
A new face in his position, and Siyabonga Furman suddenly has to win back what he thought he owned. Ajax Cape Town have promised nothing — clubs rarely do at this stage.
Squad3 Aug 2026
It is a strip of cloth and it decides nothing on a Saturday. It still tells the dressing room exactly whose opinion the manager values, which is the whole point of it.