Mamelodi Sundowns had their minds on Saturday’s Nedbank Cup final and paid the price when Free State Stars thumped the defending Premier Soccer League champions 4-0 in the final league fixture of the season. Meanwhile, Santos ended in third position on the league table after beating Platinum Stars 1-0, and Orlando Pirates beat AmaZulu 4-1.
Free State Stars’ on-form striker Diyo Sibisi is hoping to equal or overtake former Moroka Swallows star striker James Chamanga’s goal tally when the season ends on Sunday. Sibisi and Chamanga are front-runners for the Lesley Manyathela Golden Boot Award.
Blue Bulls flyhalf Burton Francis put on a match-winning kicking display as the Blue Bulls edged out the Free State Cheetahs 25-21 to be crowned Vodacom Cup champions at Loftus Versfeld on Friday. It was a relieved Carel Hoffman, Blue Bulls captain, who accepted the trophy and R1-million winners’ cheque.
Regardless of how they fare in this weekend’s final matches of the football season, SuperSport United and Ajax Cape Town have a lot to be proud of. Both have had a season made in heaven. Considering that both lost influential coaches — SuperSport’s Pitso Mosimane joined the national team brains trust and Ajax’s Muhsin Ertugral went to Kaizer Chiefs — they were expected to struggle.
Bloemfontein Celtic were beaten 2-0 by Kaizer Chiefs at Loftus on Wednesday night in an Absa Premiership clash, with the Free State side outperformed by a team who playing their best soccer of the season. Amakhosi’s late surge has effectively earned them a place in next season’s Top Eight competition.
Jomo Cosmos will play in the National First Division next season after losing 2-0 to fellow relegation candidates Black Leopards in their penultimate Absa Premiership game at the Oppenheimer Stadium in Orkney on Wednesday. A goal by Myron Shongwe in the 18th minute and a strike on the stroke of half-time by Thabiso Hlalele sealed the fate of the luckless Cosmos.
The judicial inquiry into the murder of former senior Free State official Noby Ngombane was on Friday postponed for a decision on whether his wife and family members should give oral evidence. Willem Edeling, legal counsel for Ngombane’s wife, Nokwanda, and other family members asked regional magistrate Dawn Soomaroo to consider not calling the so-called ”suspects” to the stand.
Ajax Cape Town have opened up a two-point gap over SuperSport United at the top of the Absa Premiership log following their 3-0 trouncing of AmaZulu at the Athlone Stadium on Wednesday night. SuperSport, however, have a game in hand — they meet Moroka Swallows on Saturday evening in a must-win match.
The Johannesburg High Court on Wednesday once again postponed the murder case resulting from the death of five-year-old Danielle Esterhuizen. The hearing will resume on Thursday. State prosecutor Jacqueline Steyn said there was no courtroom available.
Mamelodi Sundowns created a South African soccer record when they reached their fourth successive cup final on Sunday after beating AmaZulu 1-0 at Potchefstroom’s Olen Park in the semifinal of the Nedbank Cup. Downs were runners up in last season’s Absa Cup — the Nedbank Cup’s predecessor.
When was the last time you heard from Gauteng Premier Mbhazima Shilowa, Free State Premier Beatrice Marshoff, Northern Cape’s Dipuo Peters or even KwaZulu-Natal’s S’bu Ndebele? I reckon not lately. It may be true that some, such as Marshoff and Peters, have always had a low public profile anyway. But Shilowa and Ndebele?
Two people have died after a church group spent a night in freeezing weather at the top of the Mount-Aux-Sources peak in the Drakensberg near Witsieshoed in Qwaqwa, Free State police said on Saturday. Sergeant Mmako Mophiring said the group left for Mount-Aux-Sources on May 1 for a prayer session on the mountain.
South African athletes continued to dominate the 16th African Athletics Championships on another windy day in Addis Ababa on Saturday. Three more gold medals by Chris Harmse, Hennie Kotze and Sunette Viljoen, in the hammer throw, 110m hurdles and javelin respectively, brought the team’s golden haul to nine.
With what constituted a classic Roy Of the Rovers underdog success, lower division MP Black Aces qualified for the lucrative Nedbank Cup final at Atteridgeville’s Super Stadium on Saturday afternoon after gaining a 1-0 victory over Free State Stars.
Will Gordimer explain? This is an open letter to Nadine Gordimer, in reaction to her decision to take part in the ‘Israel at 60†celebrations. Dear Ms Gordimer, I am a Palestinian lecturer in cultural studies living in Gaza but with South African citizenship. I spent more than five years in Johannesburg, earning my PhD […]
Come May 6, officials from Nelson Mandela Bay municipality are confident that they will leave the South African Football Association smiling after world football governing body Fifa and the 2010 local organising committee agree that their stadium will be able to host matches for the 2009 Confederations Cup.
After two dismal seasons on and off the field, the appearance of Amazulu among the last four clubs remaining in the Nedbank Cup represents a fragile chance to reclaim a tarnished legacy. Last season the lads from the coastal kingdom finished second last on the log, but escaped relegation from the Premiership by winning play-offs against rivals from the lower first division.
Ajax Cape Town’s hopes of winning the Absa Premiership were dealt a massive blow at Atteridgeville’s Super Stadium on Wednesday night when defending champions Sundowns crushed the Urban Warriors 2-0. Sundowns led the match 2-0 at half-time.
Readers respond to our call to expose government bling. One writes that at a housing lekgotla held last year October at the Vista campus of the University of the Free State, participants were categorised as delegates, VIPs and VVIPs (very very important persons). While the VIPs had to share the parking lot with the plebeians, the double-vee-i-pees were allocated their own reserved parking area near the entrance of the conference centre.
The Free State Cheetahs secured their place in this year’s Vodacom Cup semifinals by beating the Boland Cavaliers by 35-20 at Vodacom Park in Bloemfontein. The home side led the Cavaliers 24-10 at the break, but the visitors never gave up. Wilton Pietersen, South African under-20 fullback, scored a brace of tries and didn’t put a foot wrong on the night.
All charges against a couple who were forced to dig up their own child’s body were dropped in the Koppies Magistrate’s Court in the northern Free State on Tuesday. Maria Mnisi and Phineas Johnson stood accused with their former employer Fanie Hyman of violating a grave.
Luis Renteria netted a 55th-minute penalty on Monday evening to give Platinum Stars a 1-0 win against Moroka Swallows and move his team from 10th to fifth place on the Premier Soccer League table. Stars have 37 points and with this result pushed Swallows out of the top eight into ninth place.
There is no decision yet on the possible closure of the Reitz men’s residence at the University of the Free State (UFS), a university spokesperson said on Monday. Lacea Loader said media reports on Monday created the impression that the UFS had made a decision not to close Reitz, but this was incorrect.
Cold and stormy weather that hit the Eastern Cape on the weekend has claimed three lives so far, police said on Monday. Two men apparently died from the cold near Mthatha on Sunday, while a woman was killed in a storm in the province’s Ngcobo area. By Monday afternoon, snow that had been falling over the province overnight was beginning to clear up.
AmaZulu striker Mpho Maleka netted thrice in an enthralling Nedbank Cup quarterfinal match to help his team beat Black Leopards 3-2 at their home ground, the Thohoyandou Stadium, on Sunday. Leopards started off briskly and took the lead through Christopher Netshidzivhe in the 19th minute.
Santos’ 10-week sequence without a defeat under Botswana Army coach Major David Bright was dimmed at Goble Park in Bethlehem on Sunday afternoon as Free State Stars earned a deserved 1-0 victory to qualify for the Nedbank Cup semifinals. Hero on this occasion was Jimmy Kauleza, who scored the solitary goal of the game in the 22nd minute.
The University of Johannesburg (UJ) will investigate allegations of racist incidents on campus where black students say they are ”living in a climate of fear”. Local South African Students’ Congress chairperson Xolani Mkhwemnte said on Friday there had been an outbreak of ”racially motivated incidents” on the Kingsway campus since Monday this week.
Composer Philip Miller tells Percy Zvomuya and Yunus Momoniat about the ethical consideration of making music from human tragedy.
The beautiful game played a vital role in raising morale on Robben Island. Now a new film looks at sport and struggle, writes Niren Tolsi.
Ordinarily, this time of the football season would be about which of the traditional top-three teams are best placed to win the Premier Soccer League (PSL) championship. But it increasingly appears that not all, if any, of the three teams that have dominated the PSL honours will make it to the top eight of the log.
Free State Stars coach Kinnah Phiri is hoping that lightning will strike twice in the same place in one season when they host Santos in the quarterfinals of the Nedbank Cup at Goble Park on Sunday at 3pm. Stars are the only side to have beaten high-riding Santos in the Absa Premiership this year.
A fourth-minute strike by Jimmy Kauleza seemed to have paved the way for a Free State Stars victory, but a 69th-minute piledriver by Nhlanhla Shabalala got a much-needed point for league championship contenders Ajax Cape Town in an entertaining Absa Premiership match at the Welkom Rugby Stadium on Wednesday.