The Betway Premiership’s title race is being openly manipulated by incompetent or biased officiating, and Victor Hlungwani’s admission that Siphesihle Ndlovu should have been sent off is the smoking gun the league can no longer ignore. For weeks, fans and pundits have whispered about preferential treatment for certain clubs, but now a former top-flight referee has put his reputation on the line with cold, technical honesty. Hlungwani’s analysis of Ndlovu’s studs-up challenge on a Mamelodi Sundowns player during AmaZulu’s recent loss was unequivocal: the tackle met every criterion for a straight red card—excessive force, endangering an opponent, and no attempt to play the ball. The match officials on the day waved play on, then compounded the error by later booking Ndlovu for a lesser foul. This is not a one-off mistake; it is the latest in a growing catalogue of decisions that consistently favor Sundowns and, by extension, distort the league table.
The evidence is damning when you stack it against other recent incidents. Earlier this season, a Kaizer Chiefs defender received a straight red for a far milder tackle in a mid-table clash, while a similar challenge by a Sundowns player in the same round went unpunished. Hlungwani’s admission provides the objective benchmark that subjective match reports could not: by his own professional standard, Ndlovu’s tackle was a mandatory dismissal. If