From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market17 Aug 2026
The offer from Plateau United for Teboho Mokoena 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.
Market17 Aug 2026
The phone has started ringing about Kermit Zwane again, and this time the name on the line is Vizela. Platinum Stars are listening politely and promising nothing.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Williams Mokoena 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.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Kermit Zwane
“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.
Match15 Aug 2026
0‑1 to Kaizer Chiefs, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Orlando Pirates have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
Squad17 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Andile Jali commits to Platinum Stars for another 3 years.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words at Platinum Stars training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Williams Hlatshwayo 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market10 Aug 2026
The offer from Free State Stars for Williams Modiba 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.
The terraces10 Aug 2026
The ground has had enough
“We travel everywhere and we get this.” 7 of the 30 senior players heard it walking off, and the ones who did not hear it were not playing.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Platinum Stars have done the hard part with Mamelodi Sundowns, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Orlando Pirates keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Morgan Tau and Platinum Stars agree 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 Platinum Stars this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom10 Aug 2026
1 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
Morgan Tau 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market3 Aug 2026
The offer from Fulham for Kermit Zwane 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
Williams Mokoena 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Morgan Tau was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Thulani Tau and Platinum Stars agree another 2 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
17 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
Mamelodi Sundowns have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.