From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad21 Sep 2026
4 goals in one game. The first was taken well, the second was taken greedily, and by the third the crowd were simply waiting for him to get the ball.
Match19 Sep 2026
6‑0, and Bradley Dolly took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Ajax Cape Town tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Squad21 Sep 2026
70 days out for Zolani Nkombelo after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Ajax Cape Town will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 24. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Siyanda Ndlovu 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.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 10.00, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Match19 Sep 2026
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Ajax Cape Town and Black Aces in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
A performance of 9.05 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Bradley Dolly is in the form of his life
A season average of 7.23 with 12 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match12 Sep 2026
A 3‑4 win over Free State Stars, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Match9 Sep 2026
A 8‑2 win over Free State Stars, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 77 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
A brace, and Themba Khune takes the afternoon — 8.48
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Themba Khune provided it, and the 8.48 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Squad14 Sep 2026
The match ball belongs to Percy Furman, whose 3 goals turned a difficult afternoon into a procession.
Squad14 Sep 2026
3 goals in one game. The first was taken well, the second was taken greedily, and by the third the crowd were simply waiting for him to get the ball.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
At 35 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 8.13, and nobody on the pitch better.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 26. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Siyanda Ndlovu and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 42. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Squad7 Sep 2026
A fracture rules Zolani Nkombelo out for 84 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Ajax Cape Town will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market7 Sep 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.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 13 signed and 2 gone
That is the business done at Ajax Cape Town until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Siyanda Ndlovu was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Cole Alexander and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout7 Sep 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.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match29 Aug 2026
6‑0, and Sifiso Ngcobo took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Ajax Cape Town tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Squad31 Aug 2026
92 days out for Zolani Nkombelo after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Ajax Cape Town will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Both of them Khama Jali's — 9.61
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.61, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Market31 Aug 2026
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Khama Jali had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.30, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Market31 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.
Market31 Aug 2026
The name of Themba Khune has come up in conversations Ajax Cape Town were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Market31 Aug 2026
Only the photograph left for Themba Tau
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Themba Tau will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Ajax Cape Town the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Match29 Aug 2026
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Ajax Cape Town have 3 straight wins of it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market24 Aug 2026
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Ashanti Gold waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Ajax Cape Town is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Squad24 Aug 2026
A move Thabo Cele 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. Thabo Cele is living that version at Ajax Cape Town, and it tends to show in the first month.
The terraces24 Aug 2026
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Morgan Mothiba was one of the reasons people came, and $2.4M does not replace that by itself.
Market24 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market24 Aug 2026
Mandla Modiba 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 Ajax Cape Town can pretend not to have heard.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Bradley Dolly 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 targets24 Aug 2026
Ajax Cape Town have gone to Mamelodi Sundowns 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 targets24 Aug 2026
Ajax Cape Town offered $33.0K; Orlando Pirates 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 34. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match15 Aug 2026
Chippa United will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Ajax Cape Town were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Market17 Aug 2026
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Ajax Cape Town have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Squad17 Aug 2026
3 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.
Market17 Aug 2026
The offer from Golden Arrows for Percy Furman 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Bradley Dolly and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
$110.0K was the most the club would pay and Mamelodi Sundowns 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad10 Aug 2026
6 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Market10 Aug 2026
The offer from MC Oran for Gift Kekana 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Sifiso Ngcobo and Ajax Cape Town agree another 5 years.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Bradley Dolly 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.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
A hand in 2 of them from Bradley Dolly — 7.77
Marked 7.77. There is a kind of forward whose value only shows up when you count what he was involved in rather than what he finished, and this is the day that argument makes itself.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 22. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
The offer went to Mamelodi Sundowns 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.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Mamelodi Sundowns have kept their man, and Ajax Cape Town go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
$33.0K on the table at Orlando Pirates. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market3 Aug 2026
Bournemouth come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Ajax Cape Town did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad3 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 Ajax Cape Town this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Sport Recife have kept their man, and Ajax Cape Town go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Khama Jali was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad3 Aug 2026
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
The dugout3 Aug 2026
Sifiso Ngcobo asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Market3 Aug 2026
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Mandla Modiba has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Ajax Cape Town.
Squad3 Aug 2026
The captaincy goes to Thamsanqa Modiba. It is not a job that wins matches, but a dressing room always notices who is given it.
Market3 Aug 2026
The best deals are the ones the accountants never notice. Zolani Nkombelo arrives at Ajax Cape Town with his wages the only cost and something to prove the only clause.