Marked for Teboho Grobler
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match20 Feb 2027
17 matches without defeat, and then Jomo Cosmos. Nobody at the ground pretended it would go on forever; nobody expected it to stop here either.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 15 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market22 Feb 2027
The offer from Kashiwa Reysol for Kermit Tau was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Market22 Feb 2027
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Ajax Cape Town they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad22 Feb 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.
Squad22 Feb 2027
A season average of 7.02 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Ajax Cape Town know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
Match20 Feb 2027
Jomo Cosmos left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Words at Ajax Cape Town training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Abdoulaye Mariko 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 dugout22 Feb 2027
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑1, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match26 Dec 2026
The unbeaten run reaches 10. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Match26 Dec 2026
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 9 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
Squad28 Dec 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.
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
Nobody could get near Sifiso Tau
Successful dribbles: 16. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Kermit Modiba chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
Squad28 Dec 2026
One booking too many, and Ramahlwe Mokoena sits out. Ajax Cape Town lose him for the sort of avoidable reason that makes a manager's week longer.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
Something was said to Cole Alexander and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Match26 Dec 2026
Ninety minutes, two goalkeepers with clean gloves, and not one finish worth keeping. University of Pretoria will be the happier side with the point.
The dugout28 Dec 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
Triumph
Match12 Dec 2026
8 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.21, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Teboho Grobler, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.66
A mark of 7.66 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Match12 Dec 2026
Another one collected away from home
5 on the bounce on the road for Ajax Cape Town. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
Match12 Dec 2026
A 3‑2 win over Polokwane City, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Rivaldo Mothiba 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 terraces14 Dec 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Teboho Grobler 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.
Loan watch14 Dec 2026
“I did not go to KCB to sit and watch. I want to come back to Ajax Cape Town and fight for my place.” 5 appearances in 17 matches say the rest.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 15. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match21 Nov 2026
Nobody wants to play Ajax Cape Town right now
4 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Rivaldo Mothiba 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 ratings23 Nov 2026
Sifiso Tau runs at them all day
Successful dribbles: 19. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Words at Ajax Cape Town training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Abdoulaye Mariko 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.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Marked 7.67. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
Squad23 Nov 2026
6 new faces, and Ajax Cape Town are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
The dugout23 Nov 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.” Kermit Modiba, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Ajax Cape Town told Abdoulaye Mariko something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad16 Nov 2026
Rivaldo Mothiba 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.
Looking ahead16 Nov 2026
The team at the top of the table next, and the honest measure of where this side actually is. Anybody can beat the club below them; the question is what happens against Orlando Pirates.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
When it matters, Sifiso Tau plays
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 dugout16 Nov 2026
Bandile Shandu 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.
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.
Loan watch16 Nov 2026
8 appearances at Aalborg and the goals keep coming. Ajax Cape Town are watching this more closely than the borrowing club would like.
Market16 Nov 2026
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Ramahlwe Mokoena signs something — a contract at Ajax Cape Town or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Market16 Nov 2026
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Hlompho Mahlangu may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
Squad16 Nov 2026
He looks like a man who lives here now rather than one who is working here. It took most of a season, and at Ajax Cape Town the difference is visible from the back of the stand.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Both of them Sifiso Tau's — 8.93
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.93, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Match7 Nov 2026
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
One scored and one made, which is a different afternoon from scoring twice and an easier one to overlook. Marked 7.90, and involved in 2 of his side's goals.
Match7 Nov 2026
It finished 3‑1, and it was Sifiso Tau’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Ajax Cape Town.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Rivaldo Mothiba and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The terraces9 Nov 2026
He is 20 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 ratings9 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Abdoulaye Mariko was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Both of them Sifiso Tau's — 8.82
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.82, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Percy Mabunda, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.10
A mark of 8.10 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.
Squad26 Oct 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.
Squad26 Oct 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.
The terraces26 Oct 2026
At 21 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.35, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad26 Oct 2026
10 new faces, and Ajax Cape Town are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
The dugout26 Oct 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.” Kermit Modiba, on a 3‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match17 Oct 2026
A 2‑5 beating by Bloemfontein Celtic was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Match19 Oct 2026
Every point is an argument now for Ajax Cape Town
Position 14 and 6 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Teboho Grobler is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Match17 Oct 2026
7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Ajax Cape Town and Bloemfontein Celtic in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Thato Sibiya 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 dugout19 Oct 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Words at Ajax Cape Town training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Abdoulaye Mariko 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
30 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Boardroom19 Oct 2026
Nobody left the Ajax Cape Town dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
In brief
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
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Player ratings
Nobody could get near Sifiso Tau
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The dugout
Sifiso Tau gets picked when it counts
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 29. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
Keagan Mokotjo: 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Thato Sibiya is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 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
Thato Sibiya in a row with a teammate
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.
Match3 Oct 2026
Conceding is one thing; the response is what tells you about a dressing room. Percy Mabunda had Ajax Cape Town level again within 4 minutes, and Golden Arrows never got to play with a lead at all.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 35 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Ajax Cape Town is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Four weeks in which nobody in the division did his job better. The award goes on a shelf and the player goes back into the side, which is the order Ajax Cape Town prefer.
Loan watch5 Oct 2026
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Ajax Cape Town, and 1 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
Match3 Oct 2026
A 2‑2 draw with Golden Arrows leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.38 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Hlompho Mahlangu is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Thato Sibiya 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Abdoulaye Mariko 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.
Match26 Sep 2026
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 89. Black Aces had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
Match26 Sep 2026
It needed Ramahlwe Mokoena to find the net to bring anything home at all: 3‑3 against Black Aces, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
Squad28 Sep 2026
8 new faces, and Ajax Cape Town are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 3‑3 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of Khama Tau
“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.