Marked for Siyabonga Buda
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad28 Sep 2026
A fracture rules Daylon Claasen out for 30 days
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.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Siyabonga Mabena, 19, plays like he has been here for years — 7.79
A mark of 7.79 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 19-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Squad28 Sep 2026
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Bidvest Wits may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Match26 Sep 2026
No end in sight to Bidvest Wits's wait for a win
4 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Njabulo Blom 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 Sep 2026
Mpho Chabatsane 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 terraces28 Sep 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.
Match26 Sep 2026
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 12. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match29 Aug 2026
4 matches without a win for Bidvest Wits
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Bidvest Wits are no longer polite ones.
Market31 Aug 2026
The fee is $280.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Ajax Cape Town drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
The terraces31 Aug 2026
Boards get told what they have done wrong for years and hear nothing on the days they get it right. This is one of those days: Bongani Mokotjo from Ajax Cape Town for $280.0K, and a ticket office having a very good morning.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Njabulo Blom 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.
Match29 Aug 2026
0‑1 to Orlando Pirates, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Words at Bidvest Wits training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Phakamani Mahlambi 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.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 16. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad31 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.
Market31 Aug 2026
Bidvest Wits have let the market know Siyabonga Buda can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad10 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Siyabonga Buda commits to Bidvest Wits for another 3 years.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Njabulo Blom 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.
Boardroom10 Aug 2026
4 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Khama Jali has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Market10 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Rivaldo Mphela has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Market10 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Ramahlwe Erasmus has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Market10 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Percy Mothiba has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Squad10 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Words at Bidvest Wits training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Phakamani Mahlambi 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.