Marked for Teboho Erasmus
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match26 Sep 2026
3‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Squad28 Sep 2026
The match ball belongs to Morgan Ngcobo, whose 3 goals turned a difficult afternoon into a procession.
Market28 Sep 2026
“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 The request is on a desk at Platinum Stars, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Gift Hlatshwayo 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Gift Mabunda is 17, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 9.49, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words at Platinum Stars training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mpho Mathebula 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 terraces28 Sep 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Khama Phiri 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.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 10 actions, 6.64, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom24 Aug 2026
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $27.8K — a club that wants Siyabonga Khune enough to be asked twice.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
The deal with Polokwane City is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Gift Hlatshwayo 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 targets24 Aug 2026
Platinum Stars have gone to Free State Stars with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Mpho Mathebula 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 targets24 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Ajax Cape Town have kept their man, and Platinum Stars go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Market24 Aug 2026
He signed expecting a bigger stage than the one he found. It has not taken long, and it has not taken the dressing room long to notice either.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Riyaaz Koopstadt, and the manager let it.
Match22 Aug 2026
Chippa United left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match8 Aug 2026
0‑5 against Orlando Pirates, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Market10 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
The offer from Ajax Cape Town for Gift Hlatshwayo 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.
The terraces10 Aug 2026
The ground has had enough
“We travel everywhere and we get this.” 6 of the 27 senior players heard it walking off, and the ones who did not hear it were not playing.
Market10 Aug 2026
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Platinum Stars have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Polokwane City keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Gift Hlatshwayo and Platinum Stars agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Gift Hlatshwayo 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.
Boardroom10 Aug 2026
5 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.