By Hlayisani Magoro
Newly promoted side Polokwane City continued to defy the odds when they held defending champions and runaway league leaders Mamelodi Sundowns to a stalemate in their last league outing of 2023 when the two sides met at Loftus Versveld.
After a string of impressive performances in the first half of the season, Rise and Shine find themselves in position nine in the Dstv Premiership standings. The 2022/23 Motsepe Foundation Championship winners have accumulated 21 points [5W 6L 5D] from their first 16 games, level on points with 8th placed TS Galaxy, 3 points behind 6th placed Kaizer Chiefs and 4 points behind 5th placed Orlando Pirates.
This is a feat interim head coach Phuthi Mohafe admits the club didn’t expect to achieve at this stage of the season as top-flight returnees.
“In fact we didn’t expect to be where we are [9th] but we expected to do well, just around position ten or eleven there but I think we have outdone ourselves,” he said.
Mohafe was tasked with steering the ship on a temporary basis following the resignation of Lehlohonolo Seema who has since joined cross-town rivals Sekhukhune United in November. The 49-year-old is in his second stint at the club and is one of the longest serving coaches at rise and shine, having been with the club in the lower divisions before.
Though cagey with the media at times, the former Royal Eagles coach claims readiness in continuing to call the shots at Polokwane City but acknowledge it’s all up to the management.
“Its all from the management to say takeover or not, that’s what I can say. Its every coach’s ambition [to be the head coach] but now it also depends on the management,” Mohafe told the media when asked about his ambitions to lead team on a permanent basis.
The Limpopo-born coach has so far overseen four matches in the dugout, losing 3-0 to TS Galaxy followed by a 1-0 defeat to Kaizer Chiefs in his first two matches in charge. He got off the mark with a 2-1 victory over Chippa United before masterminding a 0-0 draw against Mamelodi Sundowns.
