Betway Premiership Off-Season | Mid-June 2026
Polokwane City have confirmed midfielder Motheto Mosotho as their first off-season acquisition, opening a window the Rise and Shine know will define a season that needs to start better than last year did. Coach Phuti Mohafe is still in charge and has been explicit that the squad needs depth in the middle of the park. Mosotho is the first answer.
The signing
Mosotho is a central midfielder with the kind of profile Mohafe’s side has been short on — a tempo-setter rather than a runner, with the ability to play through the lines from the base of midfield. The fee was not disclosed and the contract length has not been made public, but Soccer Laduma reported earlier in the week that the move is closed and that the unveiling was a matter of formality.
The Appollis question still hangs over the rest
Mosotho is the easy part of the window. The harder one is Oswin Appollis. The winger has been on the radar of Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates for most of the year, and his contract situation is the one that will define how the Rise and Shine emerge from this off-season. Thabang Matuludi’s deal runs to 30 June, and his expected move to Pirates remains in the closing stages — last week’s reporting placed the medical inside the next fortnight.
What the coach wants
Mohafe inherited a side that finished the Premiership season in the lower half of the table and has been clear about what he wants out of pre-season: more tempo from midfield, a cleaner first phase out of the back, and a willingness to commit numbers forward in the final third. Mosotho is a signing that nudges the first of those three needs and gives the coach a body to build the new shape around.
