From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match22 Aug 2026
0‑5 to Mamelodi Sundowns, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
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.
Market24 Aug 2026
The bid was some way short and Black Aces did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Thulani Mabaso 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.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Mamelodi Sundowns have kept their man, and Black Aces go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Sandile Khumalo
“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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at Black Aces training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Williams Dala 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.
Boardroom24 Aug 2026
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
The dugout24 Aug 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 0‑5 Dean Mkhize left the room before anybody could ask which.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Williams Dala, 20, steals the show — 7.89
Marked 7.89 at 20, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Cohen Stander 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.
Market17 Aug 2026
Add another name to the list: Plateau United have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Morgan Dala. The answer from Black Aces has not changed — yet.
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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words at Black Aces training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Williams Dala 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 ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 17. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad17 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.
Market17 Aug 2026
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Squad17 Aug 2026
7 new faces, and Black Aces 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market10 Aug 2026
Bournemouth come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Black Aces did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Thulani Mabaso 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. Thulani Mabaso has, at Black Aces, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Mandla Erasmus commits to Black Aces for another 4 years.
Squad10 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 Black Aces this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
A row about effort at Black Aces
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Thulani Mabaso was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The terraces10 Aug 2026
He is 21 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Market10 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Ramahlwe Vilakazi 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. Keagan Mkhize 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market3 Aug 2026
The offer from Tusker for Ronwen Zungu 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.
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 Black Aces this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad3 Aug 2026
A row about effort at Black Aces
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Williams Dala 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.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
A loan move for Thabo Mokwena is in the works
Black Aces have made the call to Kaizer Chiefs. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
A loan enquiry to Kaizer Chiefs: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
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.
The dugout3 Aug 2026
Mandla Erasmus 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 Mandla Erasmus trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Squad3 Aug 2026
A decision that decides nothing on the pitch and everything in the room. The manager has said, without saying it, whose voice he wants heard when his own is not there.