Marked for Evidence Mothiba
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings8 Feb 2027
Successful dribbles: 37. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad8 Feb 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Evidence Mothiba
15 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Platinum Stars lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market8 Feb 2027
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Platinum Stars they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad8 Feb 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Evidence Mabunda commits to Platinum Stars for another 3 years.
Squad8 Feb 2027
The manager makes an example of Mandla 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.
Match6 Feb 2027
0‑1 to Maritzburg United, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad1 Feb 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Evidence Mothiba
22 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Platinum Stars lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Player ratings1 Feb 2027
Successful dribbles: 36. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad1 Feb 2027
“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.
Squad1 Feb 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Stabiso Njoko and Platinum Stars agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Stabiso Njoko 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.
Loan watch1 Feb 2027
Dean Jali wants to come home
“I did not go to Tusker to sit and watch. I want to come back to Platinum Stars and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 21 matches say the rest.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market25 Jan 2027
No footballer has ever cost this club more, and the number will be read out every time he misplaces a pass for the next two years.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Evidence Mothiba damages knee ligaments — 30 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 30 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Player ratings25 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 32. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings25 Jan 2027
Two goals and a mark of 8.11 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The terraces25 Jan 2027
Platinum Stars spend $140.0K on the signing the town wanted
It is the rarest sequence in football: supporters ask for something, and the club goes and does it. $140.0K for Stabiso Njoko, and for one week nobody is complaining about anything.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Mandla Tau 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 Platinum Stars this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The terraces25 Jan 2027
The crowd has taken to Mandla Tau
At 22 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.
Match23 Jan 2027
A 2‑0 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.
Squad25 Jan 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Siyanda Khumalo, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad18 Jan 2027
Evidence Mothiba damages knee ligaments — 37 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 37 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Match16 Jan 2027
8 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Squad18 Jan 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Platinum Stars may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market18 Jan 2027
Grasshopper come back empty-handed
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.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Mandla Tau 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.
Squad18 Jan 2027
“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.
Match16 Jan 2027
Mamelodi Sundowns left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Player ratings18 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 10. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market18 Jan 2027
7 months remain and no agreement is close. Every week without a signature costs Platinum Stars money.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad11 Jan 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Evidence Mothiba
45 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Platinum Stars lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad11 Jan 2027
A one-man rearguard from Gift Phiri
There were 8 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.
Match9 Jan 2027
The run now stands at 7, and the questions being asked around Platinum Stars are no longer polite ones.
Player ratings11 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 26. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market11 Jan 2027
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Bongani Manyama will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Platinum Stars the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Boardroom11 Jan 2027
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Bongani Manyama has agreed terms with Maritzburg United for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Sifiso Ngcobo 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.
Boardroom11 Jan 2027
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Thobani Gumede has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Platinum Stars have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Match9 Jan 2027
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad4 Jan 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Evidence Mothiba
54 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Platinum Stars lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market4 Jan 2027
The offer from Sturm Graz for Itumeleng Mokotjo 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.
Player ratings4 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 29. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match2 Jan 2027
No end in sight to Platinum Stars's wait for a win
6 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Platinum Stars has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad4 Jan 2027
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Platinum Stars have had the benefit of it.
Squad4 Jan 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 Platinum Stars this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match2 Jan 2027
Bidvest Wits left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Gift Phiri gets it from the manager
“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
Uneasy
Squad28 Dec 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Evidence Mothiba
61 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Platinum Stars lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 34. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match28 Dec 2026
38 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Match26 Dec 2026
No end in sight to Platinum Stars's wait for a win
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Platinum Stars has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Sifiso Ngcobo 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 Dec 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Poni Reatile commits to Platinum Stars for another 3 years.
Squad28 Dec 2026
A promise honoured for Percy Jali
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Platinum Stars told Percy Jali something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Match26 Dec 2026
Nil-nil, and few chances worth the name. Golden Arrows came to defend and left with exactly what they came for.
Market28 Dec 2026
It is the least glamorous business a club does and the reason seasons do not collapse in February. Siyabonga Mkhize is here for the weeks when three men are injured and somebody still has to play.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 48. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad21 Dec 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Evidence Mothiba
68 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Platinum Stars lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match19 Dec 2026
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Squad21 Dec 2026
A move Poni Reatile would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Poni Reatile is living that version at Platinum Stars, and it tends to show in the first month.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
Ninety minutes of Evidence Mabunda at his very best
Marked 8.11. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Platinum Stars.
Squad21 Dec 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Siyanda Khumalo, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad14 Dec 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Evidence Mothiba
75 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Platinum Stars lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match12 Dec 2026
3 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Defences have started doubling up on Itumeleng Mokotjo
11 goals and a season average of 7.20 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Squad14 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.
Squad14 Dec 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ronwen Furman, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad7 Dec 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Evidence Mothiba
82 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Platinum Stars lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match2 Dec 2026
0‑1 against Golden Arrows, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 29. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market7 Dec 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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
The manager makes an example of Morgan Manyama
“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.
Match5 Dec 2026
Chippa United left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Player ratings7 Dec 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. 9 actions, 6.76, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Evidence 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.
Boardroom7 Dec 2026
The board have answered with money instead of encouragement, which is the only answer a manager ever wants. Spending it well is now entirely his problem.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad30 Nov 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Evidence Mothiba
89 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Platinum Stars lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match30 Nov 2026
Platinum Stars refuse to drop out of the race
Position 3, 35 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 21. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
Hlompho Furman was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.91. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Match28 Nov 2026
A 2‑0 win over Kaizer Chiefs, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Match28 Nov 2026
There is a particular helplessness in conceding 2 times before the twentieth minute. Kaizer Chiefs tried to reorganise, Platinum Stars did not allow it, and the result was written long before it was confirmed.
Squad30 Nov 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.
Squad30 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of Percy Jali
“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.
Squad30 Nov 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
Steady
Squad23 Nov 2026
Evidence Mothiba damages knee ligaments — 97 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 97 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Squad23 Nov 2026
A one-man rearguard from Sifiso Zwane
There were 7 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.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 25. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings16 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 44. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Evidence Mothiba damages knee ligaments — 104 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 104 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Gift Phiri breaks a bone — 17 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 17 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Sifiso Ngcobo 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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
A season average of 7.21 with 11 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 42. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match17 Oct 2026
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 11 matches without defeat is a foundation Platinum Stars did not have in the autumn.
Match17 Oct 2026
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Platinum Stars are no longer polite ones.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Ninety minutes of Evidence Mabunda at his very best
Marked 8.16. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Platinum Stars.
Squad19 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 Platinum Stars this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match17 Oct 2026
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 57. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match10 Oct 2026
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 10 matches without defeat is a foundation Platinum Stars did not have in the autumn.
Squad12 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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Evidence 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.
Loan watch12 Oct 2026
“I watch every Platinum Stars game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Tusker runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Romario Dlamini has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Platinum Stars 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
Match5 Oct 2026
Position 2 and 20 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Squad5 Oct 2026
A one-man rearguard from Gift Phiri
There were 7 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.
Match3 Oct 2026
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 9 matches without defeat is a foundation Platinum Stars did not have in the autumn.
Market5 Oct 2026
“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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Sifiso Ngcobo 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
The award is a small thing with a heavy meaning: for four weeks nobody in this division did his job better. Platinum Stars have the trophy on a shelf and the player in the side.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 47. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market31 Aug 2026
Hatayspor come back empty-handed
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.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
A brace, and Itumeleng Mokotjo takes the afternoon — 8.31
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Itumeleng Mokotjo provided it, and the 8.31 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Market31 Aug 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.
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
Evidence 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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Mandla Tau gets it from the manager
“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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Khama Phiri knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Khama Phiri trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match22 Aug 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.
Market24 Aug 2026
The offer from Legia for Itumeleng Mokotjo 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.
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.
Squad24 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Andile Mothiba, and the manager let it.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Marked 8.62 — 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.
Market24 Aug 2026
The name of Dean Jali has come up in conversations Platinum Stars were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Marked 8.08 — 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.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Nobody could get near Mandla Tau
Successful dribbles: 14. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.