Sibusiso Vilakazi and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words at Bidvest Wits 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.
A point taken on 86 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
10 points at the turn. The first half of a season is a promise; the second is a bill, and the town is about to find out which of the two this one was.
Squad16 Nov 2026
7 new faces, and Bidvest Wits are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
Lwanda Mbanjwa, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 8.02
A mark of 8.02 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Sibusiso Vilakazi 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Lwanda Mbanjwa 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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Thami Mkhize 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.
It needed Lwanda Mbanjwa to find the net to bring anything home at all: 2‑2 against University of Pretoria, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
Nobody at Bidvest Wits 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.
The 87th minute, half the ground already edging towards the exits, and Sipho Mbule decided nobody was going anywhere. Polokwane City had no time left to answer.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Sipho Mbule. 1‑0 against Polokwane City, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Thami Mkhize 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.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Sipho Mbule was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.21. 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.
“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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
A place in the month's best eleven for Thato Sibiya
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Thato Sibiya has come out of that comparison in the side, and Bidvest Wits have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Erick Furman, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Naledi Hlongwane has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mpho Mathebula was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
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 Oumar Komara is on it.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Cohen Stander and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Thami Mkhize 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.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Sibusiso Vilakazi, and the manager let it.
Squad19 Oct 2026
30 new faces, and Bidvest Wits are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
Nobody at Bidvest Wits 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.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager’s verdict
Looking aheadA test against the best for Bidvest Wits
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
5 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.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Naledi Hlongwane is living that version at Bidvest Wits, and it tends to show in the first month.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 4 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
Thami Mkhize 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.
Successful dribbles: 16. 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.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Position 14 and 4 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
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.
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.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑2 Erick Furman left the room before anybody could ask which.
In brief
The dugoutThami Mkhize is still being punished for one mistake
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.
0‑2 to Free State Stars, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Thami Mkhize 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Mpendulo Ntuli and Bidvest Wits agree another 3 years.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Bidvest Wits are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 9 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
7 goals in one match, Siyethemba Sithebe on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Bidvest Wits and Platinum Stars.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Bidvest Wits will try again when the window opens; Chippa United may not be selling by then.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Thami Mkhize 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 words a physio says slowly. 20 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.
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Sipho Mbule obliged against Polokwane City. 1‑0 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Bidvest Wits.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Bidvest Wits will try again when the window opens; Free State Stars may not be selling by then.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Independiente have kept their man, and Bidvest Wits go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Marked 8.20 — 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.
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.
27 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.
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.
The offer went to Free State Stars 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.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Bidvest Wits close the window on a squad of their own making
42 in and 0 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Almirante Brown have kept their man, and Bidvest Wits go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Bidvest Wits will try again when the window opens; Black Aces may not be selling by then.
1‑2 to Kaizer Chiefs, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at Bidvest Wits training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Thami Mkhize 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 words a physio says slowly. 35 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.
“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.
The deal with Black Aces 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.
The chase for Oumar Komara ended with $430.0K changing hands and Golden Arrows out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
The terraces31 Aug 2026
Bidvest Wits spend $430.0K on the signing the town wanted
It is the rarest sequence in football: supporters ask for something, and the club goes and does it. $430.0K for Oumar Komara, and for one week nobody is complaining about anything.
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.
In brief
SquadThami Mkhize falls out with a teammate over standards
The words a physio says slowly. 42 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 ratings24 Aug 2026
Lwanda Mbanjwa, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 8.03
A mark of 8.03 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
$310.0K was the most the club would pay and Maritzburg United 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.
Lwanda Mbanjwa was the name on every phone-in, and the club has gone and signed him for $150.0K. For one week the board can do no wrong, which is a week most boards never get.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Lwanda Mbanjwa 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.
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.
50 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.
Golden Arrows have accepted the money. What Bidvest Wits do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
The offer went to Maritzburg United 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.
7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Bidvest Wits and Bloemfontein Celtic in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Golden Arrows have kept their man, and Bidvest Wits go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Thami Mkhize was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Innocent Maphakisa 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.
It is a specific kind of quiet, a ground watching a winning position dissolve. Black Aces kept coming because nothing stopped them, and Bidvest Wits will be asked about the last half hour all week.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Sipho Mbule is living that version at Bidvest Wits, and it tends to show in the first month.
SuperSport United wanted more than $1.4M and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Thulani Billiat 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Hlompho Khune 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.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Hlompho Mothiba 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Themba Mphela 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.
He is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and Bidvest Wits know which stage they are at.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Sifiso Mlungwana is living that version at Bidvest Wits, and it tends to show in the first month.
Bidvest Wits have gone to SuperSport United 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Mamelodi Sundowns have kept their man, and Bidvest Wits go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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.
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 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.
A loan enquiry to Mamelodi Sundowns: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.