By: Rorisang Rampheteng and Tladi Moloi

Premier Soccer League (PSL) entrants Siwelele FC officially unveiled their new kit and player acquisitions in front of their loyal supporters in Bloemfontein ahead of their opening fixture this Saturday. For their home games, the team will don green shorts paired with a shirt featuring green vertical stripes. In contrast, for away games, the team will wear black shorts accompanied by a shirt with green and white horizontal stripes in front. The club further announced the signings of four new players ahead of the 2025/26 Betway Premiership season. The new signings include Bu hle Mkhwanazi, a veteran centre-back and former Bafana Bafana defender, Relebogile Mokhuoane, a central midfielder joining from Sekhukhune Unit ed, Thabo Makhele, who joins from Chippa United, and Wayde Lekay, a striker returning to South Africa after playing for Churchill Brothers in India. Drawing from the passion Siwelele fans are re nowned for Pule Mabena, Siwelele FC supporter’s chairperson, humorously warned the new players to not lose a game against Kaizer Chiefs – given the Soweto giants’ underwhelming league perfor mance over the past decade. Bloem Duo Set to Shine Internationally “Players, there is one team in the PSL that you are not supposed to lose against, that is Kaizer Chiefs, if you lose against them, you won’t get out of the stadium but exercise the whole night,” said Mabena at the Siwelele Homecoming launch at Hoffman Square. The 2025/2026 season promises to be a season to be remembered especially for North West and Free State football enthusiasts following the promotion of Orbit College and the acquisition of SuperSport United’s PSL status by Siwelele FC. The Mswenko Boys promotion into the PSL gave the North West province a team in the topflight since Platinum Stars in the 2017/2018 football season. The Limpopo derby between Polokwane City and Magesi FC will get the league off the mark at the Old Peter Mokaba stadium, while the defending champions, Mamelodi Sundowns will kick off the season away to Chippa United at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium. Amazulu will welcome the Orbit Col lege at the Moses Mabhida in Durban, as their Kwazulu-Natal provincial rivals Richards Bay will be hoping to redeem themselves when they go up against Marumo Gallants after their 4-0 ham mering by Sundowns in the MTN 8 last weekend. All the games will kick off at 15:00. Orlando Pirates will welcome Se khukhune United at Orlando Stadium before Siwelele and Golden Arrows wrap up the day with what promises to be a league opening thriller at the Dr Molemela Stadium in Bloemfon tein. The Siwelele supporters are ex pected to paint the match venue in green and white. On Sunday, the two matches will wrap up the opening round weekend f ixtures with TS Galaxy locking horns with NFD champions and PSL debutants Durban City at the Mbombela Stadium in Nelspruit. The other fixture will see Stellenbosch FC welcome reigning Nedbank Cup champions, Kaizer Chiefs, who will be hoping to stage a much better league campaign this season. On Tuesday, Bloemfontein will be abuzz again with football action as Marumo Gallants welcome Orlando Pirates at the Dr Molemela Stadium. The game is expected to produce fireworks as Abdeslam Ouaddou returns to Bloemfontein to face his former employer in Gallants. This fixture will kick off at 19:30.