Marked for Siyabonga Buda
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad13 Sep 2027
18 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Bidvest Wits lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The terraces13 Sep 2027
The mood at Bidvest Wits has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
The dugout13 Sep 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Bidvest Wits may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Nkanyiso Shinga arrives at the club he grew up with
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Nkanyiso Shinga has, at Bidvest Wits, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Market13 Sep 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Bidvest Wits can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings13 Sep 2027
Successful dribbles: 22. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Kutlwano Letlhaku 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match20 Mar 2027
No end in sight to Bidvest Wits's wait for a win
11 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Bidvest Wits has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Bidvest Wits will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match22 Mar 2027
17 points, and the season has a number on it. Whatever it felt like from the inside, this is what it will look like in a book.
Player ratings22 Mar 2027
A brace, and Naledi Hlongwane takes the afternoon — 7.67
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Naledi Hlongwane provided it, and the 7.67 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The dugout22 Mar 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.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Innocent Maphakisa 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.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Words at Bidvest Wits training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dumisani Zuma 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 dugout22 Mar 2027
The manager makes an example of Andile 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.
Player ratings22 Mar 2027
Siyabonga Buda ran the middle of the pitch — 6.82
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 10 combined actions and a mark of 6.82, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match3 Oct 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Siyabonga Mabena 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Dumisani Zuma 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.
Match3 Oct 2026
It needed Luke Baartman to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Free State Stars, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Khama Williams chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
Siyabonga Dube 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 Siyabonga Dube trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Squad5 Oct 2026
He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. Bidvest Wits have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Siyabonga Buda, and the manager let it.
Squad5 Oct 2026
A Bidvest Wits teenager takes the young player award
Siyabonga Mabena is 19, and for one weekend he was the best of everybody his age in the division. Nobody should build a career on it and everybody quietly does.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad21 Sep 2026
May Mahlangu 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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Words at Bidvest Wits training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dumisani Zuma 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 dugout21 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Rhulani Manzini, and the manager let it.
Match19 Sep 2026
Chippa United left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Too much change too quickly at Bidvest Wits
23 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Khama Williams after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The dugout21 Sep 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 Sifiso Mlungwana is on it.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Bidvest Wits, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Squad21 Sep 2026
At 31 he has made the position his own, and the man he took it from has to find something to say about it. Bidvest Wits have a decision that made itself.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad31 Aug 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 10 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
Fee agreed, terms agreed, and a scan that said otherwise. He goes back to SuperSport United; Bidvest Wits go back to the market; and both will insist there is no story here.
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 Bidvest Wits, and it is not being withdrawn.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
Bidvest Wits have gone to Golden Arrows 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.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
$38.0K on the table at University of Pretoria. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Lebohang Lesako 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.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
Bidvest Wits offered $64.0K; Free State Stars said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Words at Bidvest Wits training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dumisani Zuma 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.
Match29 Aug 2026
3 matches without a goal for Bidvest Wits
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
The offer went to Aris Thessaloniki this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Naledi Hlongwane has just signed for Bidvest Wits, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Andile Jali 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 Bidvest Wits this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Innocent Maphakisa 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.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
Andile Jali 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.
Match15 Aug 2026
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad17 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Naledi Hlongwane and Bidvest Wits agree another 4 years.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Khama Williams after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.