Marked for Gift Mkhize
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match9 Sep 2026
A 2‑0 win over Orlando Pirates, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Age has not caught Teboho Grobler yet — 8.01
At 34 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.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 25. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market14 Sep 2026
The offer from Maritzburg United for Gift Mkhize 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.
Match12 Sep 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Kabelo Mahlasela 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 targets14 Sep 2026
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 terraces14 Sep 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Gift Mkhize 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market31 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market31 Aug 2026
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
Market31 Aug 2026
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Platinum Stars people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Rapid Wien keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Match29 Aug 2026
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Platinum Stars are no longer polite ones.
Squad31 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 Platinum Stars this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kabelo Mahlasela was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
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.
Match29 Aug 2026
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 91. Ajax Cape Town had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match22 Aug 2026
It is a specific kind of quiet, a ground watching a winning position dissolve. Chippa United kept coming because nothing stopped them, and Platinum Stars will be asked about the last half hour all week.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Marked 8.19 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.
Market24 Aug 2026
The name of Andile Zwane has come up in conversations Platinum Stars were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Market24 Aug 2026
“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.
Market24 Aug 2026
The bid was some way short and Platinum Stars did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Somila Ntsundwana and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Orlando Pirates wanted more than $110.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Kabelo Mahlasela 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 ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad3 Aug 2026
Siyabonga Kekana 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 Aug 2026
Words at Platinum Stars training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kabelo Mahlasela 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 targets3 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Monza have kept their man, and Platinum Stars go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Market3 Aug 2026
The name of Evidence Mokoena has come up in conversations Platinum Stars were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad3 Aug 2026
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.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
A loan enquiry to Kaizer Chiefs: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
The dugout3 Aug 2026
Andile Zwane 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
Gift Mkhize told to find a new club
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Gift Mkhize has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Platinum Stars.
Market3 Aug 2026
At 35, he has seen every situation this season can produce, twice. The legs will be managed; the head is the purchase.