Victor Hlungwani’s decision to publicly validate Daniel Cardoso’s “red carpet” allegation by dissecting Siphesihle Ndlovu’s challenge has transformed a fringe conspiracy into a formal crisis of legitimacy, one that now threatens to devalue every result in the final weekend of the Betway Premiership.
Hlungwani, a former Betway Premiership referee with institutional credibility, did not merely offer an opinion. He stood before cameras and declared that Ndlovu—SuperSport United’s midfielder—was “lucky to avoid a red card” in the clash against Mamelodi Sundowns. That statement did what fan chatter, WhatsApp forwards, and even Cardoso’s original outburst could not: it gave official sanction to the idea that referees are applying differential standards when Sundowns are involved. Cardoso, a former Kaizer Chiefs defender, had earlier coined the “red carpet” phrase after a controversial penalty decision in a Chiefs-Sundowns match. At the time, the league dismissed