Marked for Erick Mahlangu
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market17 May 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Black Aces is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad17 May 2027
A row about effort at Black Aces
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Siyabonga Mabena was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout17 May 2027
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Black Aces told Evidence Mothiba something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Market17 May 2027
The name of Thulani Mabaso keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Black Aces say nothing, which says plenty.
The dugout17 May 2027
Hlompho Khune 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 Black Aces, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Squad17 May 2027
The language has come, the shrug has gone, and he argues in training like a man who expects to be here next year. None of it shows up on a fee and all of it shows up on the pitch.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad26 Apr 2027
21 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Black Aces lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The dugout26 Apr 2027
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Siyabonga Mabena 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.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Keagan Mokoena 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 dugout26 Apr 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Erick Mahlangu, and the manager let it.
The dugout26 Apr 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Rivaldo Tau's mistake
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.
Loan watch26 Apr 2027
30 appearances away from home and 6 goals to show for them. Every one of them makes next summer's conversation a little more expensive.
Market26 Apr 2027
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Luther Lorch’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
The dugout26 Apr 2027
Mandla Mabunda has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Black Aces 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
Upbeat
Squad8 Mar 2027
72 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Black Aces lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Erick Modiba takes the match ball home
3 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.
Squad8 Mar 2027
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.
The dugout8 Mar 2027
Erick Mahlangu: 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.” Black Aces have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad8 Mar 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Themba Billiat commits to Black Aces for another 3 years.
Player ratings8 Mar 2027
Marked 9.92 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Match6 Mar 2027
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Erick Modiba. 3‑2 against Platinum Stars, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings8 Mar 2027
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.
The dugout8 Mar 2027
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.” Erick Mokotjo, on a 3‑2 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad12 Oct 2026
Siyabonga Mabena 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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Dean Erasmus is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Words at Black Aces training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kagiso Malinga 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 dugout12 Oct 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.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Hlompho Manyama, and the manager let it.
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 Mandla Mabunda is on it.
Market12 Oct 2026
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Black Aces know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
Erick Mahlangu 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 Black Aces, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Loan watch12 Oct 2026
8 appearances at Bidvest Wits and the goals keep coming. Black Aces are watching this more closely than the borrowing club would like.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market7 Sep 2026
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Black Aces have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Market7 Sep 2026
Kermit Mkhize 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 Black Aces can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Black Aces close the window on a squad of their own making
14 in and 3 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $30.0K — a club that wants Themba Jali enough to be asked twice.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Orlando Pirates keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
$29.0K was the most the club would pay and SuperSport United 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Siyabonga Mabena 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.
Squad7 Sep 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 Black Aces this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Erick Mahlangu slips down the pecking order
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Erick Mahlangu is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.