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Newcomers promise to retain technical team

History as North West, Northern Cape get NFD teams

Sihle Ndebele Journalist
Tlou Segolela of Polokwane City Rovers.
Tlou Segolela of Polokwane City Rovers.
Image: Lefty Shivambu/Gallo Images

In the wake of their ascendancy to the second tier of SA football, Platinum City Rovers manager Tlou Segolela has promised they won’t alter the technical team in the GladAfrica Championship.

Rovers, who are based in the North West, earned a slot in the National First Division as the runners-up in the ABC Motsepe League national playoffs. Rovers lost on penalties to the Northern Cape’s Hungry Lions in the final at Mbombela Stadium at the weekend. The game had been deadlocked at 0-0 after extra time.

The success of Rovers and Lions means the North West and Northern Cape now boast professional clubs. While the last professional team in the North West was Platinum Stars in 2018, the Northern Cape has never had a professional team since the days of Basotho Tigers, who campaigned in the second tier in the early 2000s.

While promoted clubs often discard their coaches when they reach the promised land, Segolela, who made a name for himself as a speedy winger at Orlando Pirates in his heyday, has promised that they will stick with coach Tesco Macheke and his technical panel.

“We believe in building people. Our coach is going nowhere. We will continue with the same technical team, I promise that. Coach Macheke is part of our long-term project,” Segolela told Sowetan yesterday.

Segolela, who runs the operations of the club alongside chair France Temo, urged business people in the province to come on board and lend a helping hand. Rovers pocketed R500,000 for being the runners-up, while Lions walked away with R1m. 

“This club belongs to the community of North West. The chairman has been running the club using his own money and that’s not easy, hence we beg corporates in the province to sponsor us. It’s unfortunate that the economy has taken a knock due to Covid-19 but if business people can come together [to support the club], we will appreciate [it],” Segolela said.

Rovers were established in 2010. This year was their fifth appearance in the national playoffs. Segolela believes their past failures played a big role in them succeeding this time around.

“In 2011 and 2012, we went to the national playoffs and failed. Last year and even in 2019 we failed again. Failing helped us ... it built our character. We took so many lessons from previous appearances,” he said. 

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