In football, there are times when nobody fully anticipates what will happen. Moments that come out of nowhere, change entire seasons in a matter of seconds, and leave a stadium full of spectators wondering if they’ve just witnessed a nightmare or history. On the last Saturday of the Betway Premiership season, both occurred at Mbombela Stadium.
Just before halftime, Orbit College goalkeeper Sabelo Nkomo, positioned between the posts in what was essentially a relegation survival game, punched the ball into his own net. There was no deflection. It wasn’t misfortune disguised as something worse. In all honesty, it was one of the most bizarre own goals in South African football history. The kind of moment that people talk about at braais long after the season is over, that is repeatedly described in WhatsApp voice notes, and that is replayed on phones all over the nation for weeks.
The victory was crucial for the Pirates. They were chasing their first league title in fourteen years and were right up against Mamelodi Sundowns until the very end, so they desperately needed it. The exact opposite was required by Orbit College, which had just received a promotion and was struggling to remain in the top division. It appeared as though both teams would win the first half for roughly 44 minutes. The scores were equal. The crowd at Mbombela was agitated. Everything abruptly changed when Nkomo punched the ball into his own net.
Ndumiso Ngiba scored a second own goal just five minutes into the second half, and that was it. The Orlando Pirates won. Orbit College was demoted. Yanela Mbuthuma’s team won a domestic treble, adding the Betway Premiership to the MTN8 and Carling Knockout titles they had already won earlier in the season. The Pirates players themselves might not have been able to comprehend how the title came to be. Winning is winning, but this was completely different.
Even while admitting the error, it’s difficult not to feel sorry for Nkomo at that precise moment. On the field, goalkeepers experience a unique form of loneliness. When something goes wrong, it’s obvious, total, and irreversible. There isn’t a teammate with whom to share the blame or a tactical justification to make it seem less harsh. On the last day of the season, in front of a full stadium, he made a mistake that cost his team their top-flight status. It takes time for that weight to disappear.
However, Nkomo wasn’t the only standout goalkeeper for Orbit College this season, which adds another layer to the story. The other goalkeeper for the team has been 28-year-old Mazenod, Lesotho native Sekhoane Moerane, whose tale is truly worth sharing. He received a nomination for the PSL Goalkeeper of the Season title. At the 2023 COSAFA Cup, he was named Best Goalkeeper. In that same competition, he assisted Lesotho in placing second. Earlier in his career at LMPS, he made eight of his first nine appearances without giving up a goal. That isn’t a fallback. That’s a serious football player who made his way from the Kingdom of Lesotho to South Africa’s top division and played well enough to be recognized on an individual basis.
Orbit College, a North West province-based team that advanced to the 2025–26 South African Premiership after placing second in the playoffs, is an incredible tale in and of itself. Olympia Park is home to a team made up of both domestic and international players, with an average age of 29. The existence of a team named Orbit College in the top division of South African football is intriguing. It was inevitable that their first Premiership season would be challenging. It was brutal in the end.
Observing all of this gives the impression that the Orbit College goalkeeper’s story isn’t truly a single narrative. There are two. One is Moerane’s, a quiet, well-deserved, world-class product developed over many years. The other is Nkomo’s, a single incident that cast a shadow over a whole season. Whether it’s fair or not, both men now have to deal with the fact that football has a way of condensing careers into single images. At the worst possible moment, one punched the ball into his own net. On the continental stage, the other received an award. This season, they both wore the same goalie jersey. They are now both in the same challenging chapter. It’s still unclear what either of them will do next.
