A clear 4-1 defeat marks the Witsies’ triumphant return.
Wits opened the Varsity Football tournament with a commanding win, dominating possession and creating multiple scoring chances.
The team’s performance was marked by strong teamwork, sharp tactics, and clinical finishing.
This result sends a clear message that Wits is a serious contender aiming for the tournament title this season.
A statement was made by Wits University’s Educated Footballers, who announced their comeback with four goals to Central University of Technology’s one on home turf on August 7, 2025.
Wits Football Club players celebrating after another ball finds the back of the net. Photo: Supplied/Thando Jafta
Goal scorers included Mxolisi Mthiya, Sifiso Mlondo and Tebogo Masemola, who walked away with R1000 for his goal rush award, the opening goal that set the standard for the rest of the match.
Captain, Kgwadi Molepo, a postgraduate Property Studies student, walked away with the Player of the Match title after leading the team to its first victory.
Thanduxolo Zulu, who was appointed last year as head coach for the Wits Football team said, “I do not have any personal objectives as I put myself behind the team, I want what is best for them and best for them is being in the tournament and excelling.”
He added, “I was impressed by the second half, the intensity and in terms of the intention behind everything that we did that led to more goals.” Wits Football set the standard for what promises to be a competitive Varsity Football tournament. The match showcased the pace, skill, and strength that define the competition.
Kgwadi Molepo, Wits Football captain, walked away with the Player of the Match Award. Photo: Lindelwa Khanyile
A glimpse of the high-quality football still to come as the tournament unfolds over eight weeks between August to October, 2025.
“I’m excited and proud to be captain of this institution, definitely one game at a time with a new coach, new technical team it’s a change and starting on a clean slate for Wits,” said Molepo.
“As a first-year attending the tournament for the first time, I’m beyond impressed with the squad and I believe that we can win it ’’ said spectator, Amanda Hlatshwayo.
Zulu said this game was a set tone for the rest of the tournament, with fans showing up despite cold and wet weather conditions, which really fueled the team throughout the match.
The last time Wits Football reached the finals was in 2018, Molepo says this new generation of players is determined to win hopefully break records.
The Educated Footballers are set to play another home game against Durban University of Technology next week at 17:00 on SuperSport
FEATURE IMAGE: The Goal Rush award winner, Tebogo Masemola. Photo: Lindelwa Khanyile.
From the highs of lifting the Africa Cup of Nations at the FNB stadium to the lows of a false celebration in Nelspruit in 2012 when Pitso Mosimane’s team thought they had qualified for the finals after misreading the rules, South Africa’s football development has experienced mixed fortunes since 1994.
The year is 1996. The FNB Stadium is filled to the brim with a crowd of screaming fans, all different races and genders, but all adorned in South Africa’s bright green and yellow. Banners fly and the stadium shakes with the sheer force of the home crowd. Bafana Bafana have just become the champions of Africa. Football has done the impossible and brought a troubled nation together. The country’s first footballing victory under democracy could be something straight out of a movie.
In the years preceding this victory, the thought of a multiracial crowd cheering for the country’s football team seemed unimaginable; in the years since, the same may still be said. 2024 marks 30 years since South Africa gained freedom from the oppressive apartheid regime. 1994 marked the end of an era of segregation and mistreatment, ushering in what was meant to be an age of reconciliation and unity. The transition to a democratic country meant that all aspects of life were set to change, from education to policy – and even sports. Football did not escape this transition and faced its own fair share of transformation in attempts to truly reflect the ‘new South Africa’.
Football has always been a massive part of South African culture. Like many other sports it is seemingly a perfect way to unite a nation. However, due to the apartheid regime, South Africa has not always experienced the benefits of footballing unity.
The streets of Johannesburg have seen the soles of a million shoes and just as many soccer boots. From Doctor Khumalo to Relebohile Mofokeng, football fields across the city have seen the growth of the sport and its players alike.
A group of boys at an afternoon training session in Sandton, Johannesburg. Photo: Kamogelo Kungwane
Football in South Africa before 1994
In South Africa, football goes by many names: ‘football’, ‘soccer’ and ‘diski’, to name a few. Its many monikers denote the reach of the sport countrywide. Before the onset of democracy in 1994, football was still a widely played sport, but it was structured very differently to how it is now.
The divisions in South African society during this time applied to more than just where to eat or where to shop: they placed black, Coloured, and Indian footballers at the foot of the banquet table, left to eat the crumbs from their white colleagues. They could not play alongside white players, rent out football fields or, sometimes, earn money for playing. This made football political, forcing these groups to fight against this mistreatment by forming the South African Soccer Federation in 1951.
During this time, the violence in South Africa was all-consuming and in 1961 the international community placed a sports boycott on South Africa. This left the country out of international tournaments and forced competition inwards, allowing for the growth of local football. The formation of teams like Kaizer Chiefs, Moroka Swallows and Orlando Pirates was a light in the dark, illuminating the future of football for black South Africans. These clubs forged a new path for the sport to develop in their communities. This culture created the National Soccer League (NSL), which followed non-racial policies and advocated for the sports boycott to continue. These policies ultimately built the South African Football Association (SAFA), which would go on to govern football across the country to this day.
These developments and the end of apartheid led to one of the country’s biggest footballing moments: the 1996 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon).
Bafana Bafana and AFCON 1996
At the 1996 Afcon final the excitement of the home crowd was palpable; the stadium packed to the rafters with every kind of South African. Race did not matter when the country was at the cusp of such an iconic moment and the diversity in the team drove this point home.
This integrated South African national team was formed in 1992 after a 1-0 victory against Cameroon, a year before the end of the sports boycott. The Afcon victory was a step in the right direction for South African football; a beacon of light for a unified country after a time of struggle. This era showed the country’s ability to dominate in the footballing world – a motivation to players across the country.
One such player was Joel ‘Fire’ Masilela.
Masilela is a legend of South African football, and his national team debut came just two years after the Afcon win. He still thinks highly of his time in the Bafana Bafana squad. “It was an honour and privilege for each and every player when you were called to represent your country,” he says.
Masilela went on to forge an amazing career, playing for top-flight Premier Soccer League (PSL) teams like Mamelodi Sundowns until his retirement in 2004. He has since become a development football coach, honing the skills of young players so they can one day walk the path he illuminated.
‘No DNA, just RSA’
On the football field, South Africa seemed to be taking giant leaps forward and zero steps back: the winning streak was undeniable. When Bafana Bafana was able to participate in international competitions, local teams followed suit and played in international club competitions.
In 1995, Orlando Pirates won the CAF African Champions Cup, which featured clubs from around Africa. Orlando Pirates was the first team from Johannesburg to win this trophy. Its squad embodied the new multicultural approach, including wo white players, Gavin Lane and Mark Fish, a Coloured player called Brandon Silent, and a lineup of black players. At this point, there was ‘no DNA, just RSA’ because the wins kept on coming.
In the wake of Bafana Bafana’s Afcon victory, smaller local football clubs were also beginning to improve and adapt to the multiracial culture that the country was moving towards and, in 1996, the South African PSL was formed.
A sign at the PSL Head Office in Johannesburg. Photo: Kamogelo Kungwane
These strides forward seemingly marked the beginning of a fruitful and exciting time for South African football and local Johannesburg clubs, but the success did not last for too much longer. Since Afcon 1996, South Africa has qualified for only a few international competitions, but has not won any more trophies. Bafana Bafana has failed to make an impact in the World Cup beyond their participation in 1998 and 2002 and their default qualification in 2010 as hosts. A seemingly strong national team was reduced to pieces as a result of lack of development.
Although the country was facing trouble on the international football stage, club football continued to improve. The PSL continued to grow, and its increasing commercial power made it a lucrative field for sponsors, players and media partners.
The economy of football
Money makes the world go round, and that is still true on the football field. The business of football is a profitable endeavour: football teams and leagues can make money from sponsorships, broadcast rights and ticket sales. With the inception of the PSL in 1996, the league received a title sponsorship from Castle Lager. This enabled the league to pay teams, secure venues and cover operational costs to keep the league running. At a team level, clubs make their money from ticket and merchandise sales, as well as sponsorships.
Football is an economy booster because of the other businesses that benefit from its operations. From the women who spend hours cooking meals to sell outside stadiums, to the hotels that sell out during cup finals, football offers a lot of money to the surrounding community. However, it may not always be profitable.
It is no secret that in South Africa football is a predominantly black sport. From the coaches to the players to the supporters, the majority of the industry is carried on the backs of black people. Economically, this may pose a challenge because black people in South Africa tend to be the most impoverished. This is a direct contrast to sports with more support from white people, like rugby or cricket, which can make more money due to their spectators’ class.
PSL chief operating officer Ronnie Schloss says the league is aware its audience may not be as affluent as supporters of other sports and that it prices the games more fairly. “We can’t do what rugby does, because the majority of our spectators can’t afford it,” Schloss says. He emphasises that football is a big part of the black community and the PSL believes that it owes it to them to make the game accessible.
Johannesburg’s role in football
Johannesburg is a big part of South African footballing culture. Of the 43 football stadiums in the country, 13 of them are in the greater Johannesburg area. The city is home to numerous football clubs and has been for decades. Orlando Pirates, Kaizer Chiefs and Moroka Swallows are just a few of the legendary teams that paved the way for the game to flourish in South Africa.
Orlando Pirates was founded in Orlando, Soweto in 1937 and has solidified itself as a core part of the football legacy of Johannesburg and South Africa at large. The club has provided many of its stars to the national team and has been a decisive marker in the development of football in South Africa. Their Soweto rivals, Kaizer Chiefs, have managed a similar feat from before1994 to beyond. This marks Johannesburg as a centre for football in South Africa, with just these two clubs having more than 10 million fans and 130 trophies between them.
Both clubs have invested heavily in developing young footballers by founding their own academies and Pirates even host their own youth football tournament, called the Pirates Cup.
Astroturf football training facilities in Sandton, Johannesburg. Photo: Kamogelo KungwaneA group huddle before the beginning of a training session. Photo: Kamogelo Kungwane
Kaizer Chiefs’ corporate communications officer, Vina Maphosa, explains how the club approaches development. “We develop players to not only be footballers: we encourage them to study and go to school… Football and footballers impact society because people look up to them and they are celebrated in communities,” he says.
This holistic approach to development is meant to create well-rounded players who can add positively to society, while still dominating the football field. In recent years, football development has become a big priority. In 2017, SAFA Gauteng launched the Gauteng Development League (GDL), which currently consists of 18 clubs per age group. The GDL is the top flight for development football in Gauteng, and 12 of the 18 teams are based in Johannesburg, once again highlighting the city’s footballing dominance, even at the development level.
What does football’s future hold?
Football seems to be experiencing growth in both support and performance. According to Eighty20, in the past year, 5 million South Africans have watched a football match in some capacity. This shows the level of support people are giving to the sport, which is important given how integral this is to the economy of the game. These numbers are further bolstered by the PSL’s viewership reaching new heights in the 2023-24 season, with the Premiership being the most-watched sporting event by South Africans, apart from Afcon 2023.
South Africa also experienced a high in their performance in Afcon 2023, placing third after a string of impressive displays. The team showed renewed confidence and a stronger performance than in other recent international competitions. This is likely due to growing financial investments in football and youth development. Many of the players in the squad were from youth development clubs in Johannesburg and the quality of football is set to increase further with more investment in youth development.
The football landscape in Johannesburg and South Africa at large has evolved since 1994 and this looks likely to continue in the coming years. Schloss shares the PSL’s goals for South African football in the future. “We are currently ranked in the top leagues in the world from an administration point of view,” he says. “Our biggest goal is to try and encourage that the standard of play is improved, the standard of officiating is improved, and we can get to a situation where the clubs own their own grounds… because none of them owns their own stadiums.”
These are simple goals, but they reflect an intention to see football continue its upward trajectory and solidify itself as an integral part of South African culture.
Football can be considered the heart and soul of South Africa’s community. It has become a cornerstone for the black community in Johannesburg and the country at large. But recognising black people as the core of South African football places a slight damper on the magic of the moment at the widely celebrated 1996 Afcon victory. Seeing a sea of different races gathered to support a predominantly black sport seems as far-fetched now as it must have back then. Despite this, it is still incredible to note the legacies of Johannesburg’s teams, the growth of football among the public, and the promising future that continues to be built for the beautiful game.
FEATURED IMAGE: A group of young people at their football training session. Photo: Kamogelo Kungwane
Against all odds, a talented young footballer scores a deal with Premier Soccer League (PSL) club.
In a remarkable tale of resilience, Sifiso Mazibuko, a 20-year-old student from Wits University has signed a contract with Chippa United FC.
This significant milestone signifies the start of Mazibuko’s professional football journey, a dream brought to life by unwavering determination and grit. “I feel blessed to be granted this opportunity, to kickstart my career and represent this big team,” says Mazibuko.
Mazibuko’s eyes shone with pride and determination as he signed with the Chilli Boys earlier this month. His journey is not only a personal victory, but also emphasizes the excellence of the SuperSport United DSTV Diski Challenge (DDC) academy in nurturing professional athletes.
Despite the undeniable appeal of professional football, Mazibuko is dedicated to his education. Juggling his academic responsibilities with his sporting endeavors has been both challenging and fulfilling. He attributes his ability to manage this demanding period to the strong support system around him.
“Wits University welcomed me with open arms; it felt like home even before I started,” Mazibuko recalls. “Balancing my studies in the first year was challenging, but after the Varsity Cup, I found a way to manage both successfully.”
Hailing from Kwa-Zulu Natal, his affection for the beautiful game was clear from a young age according to his father, Sibusiso Mazibuko. “You deserve it my son, go out and show the world what you can offer on the field,” says Sibusiso. Football was more than just a sport for him; it became an all-encompassing obsession.
Sifiso Mazibuko in action for Wits University. Photo: Supplied/Lindy Makhanyile
While playing for the SuperSport United DDC team, the winger’s knack for coordinating attacks, generating scoring chances, and motivating his teammates set him apart, according to Roscoe Krieling, Mazibuko’s coach at SuperSport DDC.
Guided by seasoned coaches and supported by equally skilled peers, he refined his abilities and grew into a versatile footballer. His outstanding skills and leadership quickly drew the attention of the Chilli Boys scouts.
“He’s got real natural potential,” says Roscoe Krieling, Mazibuko’s coach at SuperSport DDC. “Good luck to him; it’s always positive when a player moves on and gets the opportunity to perform and showcase their abilities at the highest level.”
With his move to the PSL, Mazibuko is poised to make waves in South African football.
His ultimate goal is to play professional football in Europe, a dream that will not only bring pride to his family, but also inspire future generations to overcome obstacles and achieve greatness through hard work and determination.
FEATURED IMAGE: Sifiso Mazibuko signs for Chippa United FC. Photo: Supplied/Chippa United FC.
In a tense atmosphere, the away team dominated Braamfontein Centre FC with a 7-0 victory in the Wits internal league.
On Monday, July 22, the Zulu Society FC started the second half of the season exquisitely by dominating Braamfontein Centre FC at Wits Sturrock Pack Stadium.
The game began with both sides pushing hard and applying pressure in each other’s defensive third.
However, just minutes into the first half, the tension was quickly broken when Zulu Society FC made their presence felt by effortlessly scoring their first three goals. This disrupted the opposition as players struggled to regain momentum and composure.
The first few minutes of the second half were openly contested. For a moment, it appeared as though Braamfontein Centre FC was poised to pull off an incredible turnaround.
But, despite generating multiple chances, their lack of structure and communication created space for Zulu Society FC to exploit gaps and ultimately left the home team vulnerable. The predictability of some goals exposed the Braamies’ defensive flaws.
The chants and cheers from the spectators showed unity, revealing that one team arrived at the game with a winning mindset. Each goal was celebrated as if the opponents might still fight back, but as the outcome became inevitable, the cheers grew quieter.
After the final whistle, Wandile Zulu, the Zulu Society FC coach, told Wits Vuvuzela that his team remained “focused” and “not complacent” in their approach to the game.
Zulu Society FC coach, Wandile Zulu briefs the squad about their overall performance just after the game ended. Photo: Salim Nkosi
Braamfontein Centre FC remains second to last in the league, with a record of eight games, seven losses, and one draw.
Nicholas Gudwana, the coach of Braamfontein Center FC, said: “I don’t want to say we performed poorly, but the team still needs to work very hard. This is a new team that was introduced last year, so we are in the process of building.”
As the dust settled after the match, Zulu Society FC climbed to 6th place in the first division of the Wits Internal Football League, while the home side continues to linger in the bottom half of the table.
FEATURED IMAGE: Braamfontein Centre FC restructuring its game plan during half time. Photo: Salim Nkosi
The Cheese boys suffered their second straight loss to Zulu Society FC in an exciting 4-3 thriller.
Wits Junction FC’s hopes of securing a win at halftime were crushed as Zulu Society FC dominated, scoring four goals at Wits Sturrock Park Stadium on Monday, May 6th.
The first half was tightly contested with little to separate the two teams, but what followed in the second half turned into a nightmare for Wits Junction FC. Initially, it appeared the match might end in a stalemate, but the Cheese boys’ shaky defense became evident. Their defense crumbled, allowing Zulu Society FC to effortlessly navigate through their midfield, a sight that was shocking to see.
As the second half unfolded, Zulu Society FC further gained momentum, applying consistent pressure on their opposition. The team executed their coach’s attacking game plan, resulting in a relentless assault. Though Wits Junction FC managed to equalise 2-2, their lack of organisation proved costly as Zulu Society FC scored two more goals to secure victory. The Cheese boys netted a consolation goal at around 80 minutes, but it wasn’t enough to alter the outcome.
Zulu Society FC player dribbling past Wits Junction FC players. Photo: Rivaldo Jantjies
The continuous display of entertaining football thrilled the crowd, who enthusiastically celebrated each goal with the players. The game was a goal extravaganza – everything that a football fanatic asks for.
Wandile Zulu, the coach of Zulu Society FC, spoke about his team’s performance during the match, he told Wits Vuvuzela, “It’s our first win, it’s a good win, as you can see people are happy.” Zulu reiterated his hope that his team will build on this triumph going forward. He stressed the importance of making slight improvements in terms of compactness to ensure future success.
Entering the match after losing four goals in their previous game, Wits Junction FC’s performance on Monday underscored a clear lack of defensive cohesion, resulting in eight goals conceded in their last two matches.
Khethani Mathikhi, the coach of Wits Junction FC, commented on his team’s performance during the match, he said: “We conceded quite a few silly goals that could’ve been avoided.” However, Mathikhi believes they can recover from this setback, especially considering the absence of some key players. He emphasized that strengthening their defense could lead to victory.
Following the match result, the Cheese boys have dropped to fourth place in the first division of the Wits Internal Football League, whereas Zulu Society FC has ascended to the tenth position.
FEATURED IMAGE: Wits Junction FC coach instructing his players during half-time. Photo: Rivaldo Jantjies
Zainab Patel is a student journalist at Wits Vuvuzela. She has documented her families’ activities during the lockdown at their home in the north of Johannesburg.
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