Marked for Bongani Kekana
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market7 Sep 2026
Bongani Jali 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 Platinum Stars can pretend not to have heard.
Market7 Sep 2026
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Tusker waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Platinum Stars is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Window shuts: 10 in, 3 out at Platinum Stars
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 10 arrived, 3 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Squad7 Sep 2026
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.
Transfer targets7 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
44 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad7 Sep 2026
The young player of the month award goes to a 19-year-old at Platinum Stars who has looked like the finished article for four weekends running. The next four are the ones that decide whether he is.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Keagan Zungu slips down the pecking order
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Keagan Zungu is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
Market7 Sep 2026
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Bongani Kekana’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad31 Aug 2026
Kermit Tau takes the match ball home
3 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.
Market31 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.
Match29 Aug 2026
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Platinum Stars have 3 straight wins of it.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Bongani Kekana and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
A performance of 9.75 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Match29 Aug 2026
A 3‑2 win over Ajax Cape Town, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Market31 Aug 2026
The name of Rivaldo Lorch has come up in conversations Platinum Stars were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
The terraces31 Aug 2026
At 19 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.
The dugout31 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match15 Aug 2026
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 3‑0 against Kaizer Chiefs, and it could have been more.
Market17 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Bongani 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.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Platinum Stars asked and Mamelodi Sundowns said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The terraces17 Aug 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Hlompho 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.
Market17 Aug 2026
The name of Thulani Vilakazi has come up in conversations Platinum Stars were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 18. 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 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.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
A loan enquiry to Mamelodi Sundowns: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market3 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Bruno Vannucci and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes 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. Siyabonga Erasmus 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
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.
Market3 Aug 2026
Add another name to the list: AFC Leopards have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Khama Jali. The answer from Platinum Stars has not changed — yet.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
A loan enquiry to Mamelodi Sundowns: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
Mamelodi Sundowns 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
Bongani Jali 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 Platinum Stars, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market3 Aug 2026
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Siyabonga Furman has his answer from Platinum Stars; what he does with it is the next window’s story.